The Strange Adventure of a Used to be Hermit
by bunbon
Summary: Mei's hermit life included watching Christoph on T.V and hiding away from the little demon.Her mom manages to persuade her to get out of the house and go on a journey with Hugh.With her lack of knowledge of battling, strange love triangles, Team Plasma, plus more,her journey is going to be anything but normal. Rated K plus for crackish events. Sequel and LiveCaster Shipping!
1. Hermit Comes Out of Her Home

**Hello everyone! This is my first story on Fanfiction. Lately I been having a lot of time on my hands after school so I decided to write a story about Mei's journey(I don't like her English name.)**

**Well this will be a mix of adventure,romance, and humor. With a lot of crackish elements mixed in. There's a butt load of journey fics out there, so I need mine to stick out in some way, right? xD**

**This follows the plot of White 2, so please read at you're own risk! **

* * *

"It's time for…BALDY THE POKEMON MAGICIAN with special guest appearance CHRISTOPH!"

Mei let out a squeal and hugged her chibi doll of Christoph while she stared intently at the television screen. A skinny bald guy walked onto a stage that was adorned with blinking lights. His face was painted white and his makeup seemed to be put on by blind preschoolers, making him look like a grotesque clown. The man spouted some gibberish and a boy with spiky light green hair and green eyes appeared in a cloud of sparkles.

A door slammed nearby. "Mei! I just talked to Professor Jupiter and she wants to give you a Pokedex!"

"KYAAAAA!" Mei screamed and scooted closer to the television. "IT'S CHRISTOPH!" The brunette loved everything about the celebrity. His little mole on his chin, to his light green hair. He was funny, nice, smart,a good singer, and good looking!

"Mei?"

The girl glanced upwards blankly at her brown-eyed mother. Her mom sighed and grabbed the remote from the couch and pressed the off button.

Mei jolted upwards and stared in horror as the love of her life disappeared into blackness. "H-hey!" she shouted, diving to snatch the remote from her mom.

Her mom moved out of the way, letting her daughter fall onto the ground. "You'll be thanking me later if you hear what I have to say."

Mei glared at her, obviously not pleased about having Christoph gone. "What is it mom?"

Her mother laughed and said, "Ok brace yourself, do… you want a pokemon?"

Well that was a no-brainier. " No, I'm fine with watching Christoph."

Her mom's mouth fell wide open." I thought you always wanted a pokemon!"

Mei took this moment of shock to her advantage. She grabbing the T.V remote from her mother's hand and turned Baldy back on. The smiling 'magician' was summoning Patrats that were running around in circles around a slightly nervous looking Christoph.

"That was before I met Christoph," Mei replied dreamily.

Mei's mom sighed and latched onto the cord of the T.V and pulled on it, making the screen go black.

"No!"

Her mom placed her hands on her hips and glared at her daughter. "I'm tired of you - a fourteen year old - being a lazy bum and having no life! Go get a pokemon and start your pokemon journey along with Hugh! I already told him about you getting your Pokemon today from Professor Juniper! "

"B-but mom... I don't want to!"

"Well I want you to, so get up!" Her mom grabbed Mei's arm and stared pulling on it, dragging the girl to the door. The nap of the carpet rubbed harshly against her thin black tights, making her legs feel like they were on fire. "Ow,mom let me get up!" she yelled, grimacing from the pain.

Her mom let go of her and smiled while she watched her daughter get up and rub the back of her legs."Are you going to get your pokemon now?"

The burning sensation had finally disappeared, so Mei stopped rubbing. "What about school? If I go on a pokemon journey I can't go to school!" Mei knew for sure that that would make her mom change her mind.

Her mother's eyebrows furrowed together. "What school? Sweetie, you don't go to school."

_That's right…I don't go to school…_Mei thought to herself_, I haven't been outside for an awhile, but wasn't there new school nearby?_ The girl's face brightened up. "I could go to that new trainer school!"

"Nope!" Her mom waggled a finger. "That's a Pokemon Trainer school. You're going to need to get a pokemon to go in there."

"I-I…u-um..." Mei knew her mom had gotten her there. "I don't want to get a pokemon though…"

"Mhmm! If you get a Pokemon, Hugh wouldn't brag to you about his pokemon."

Hugh was Mei's childhood friend. He had hatched a Tepig from an egg a couple weeks ago, and stopped by Mei's house every so often to brag about it. Mei had gotten use to it and didn't really care about it anymore.

"I really don't mind his bragging," said Mei.

Her mom's eyes twinkled with mischievous."You really don't mind him?"

"Well yeah, he's my friend!"

"Well...I do think that boy has a thing for you."

"Huh?" Mei cocked her head to one side." A thing for me? My birthday is pretty far from today."

Her mother sighed. Sometimes, her daughter's denseness was too much. Suddenly an idea struck her, making her face light up like a bulb." You know...if you go on a pokemon journey you might meet that Christoph guy you like so much."

Mei widened her eyes. She might meet Christoph… They would fall in love and have two children. A girl named Angelia and a boy named Chris. A high-pitched giggle formed inside of her and escaped her throat.

Her mom smiled." Find a girl with a big green hat! She's suppose to give you a Pokemon and Pokedex !" She rushed into another room and came back with a white handbag and white visor."Here's your stuff! Stay safe! " With that said, Mei's mom pushed her daughter out the door, and closed it behind her.

"Thanks mom," the brunette murmured and stumbled outside into Aspertia City, still dreaming about her future with the idol. She was snapped wide awake by a cool breeze and the warm rays of the sun on her face. She put her visor on her head and fixed her two pigtails. She needed to become a Pokemon Champion so Christoph would notice her!

_It's been a long time world..." _Mei thought and ventured off to the more crowed parts of the city.

* * *

The brunette turned her attention to the sound of foot steps behind her. It was Hugh and that little demon. Hugh had navy blue hair, that spiked upwards like a pineapple. He always wore a red and white jacket, that zipped all the way up to his chin. Mei didn't know how he wore it; she felt like that jacket would choke her if she tried to move her neck.

Mei tried to smile brightly while ignoring the glares of the little demon." Hi Hugh!" Trickles of sweat formed behind her bangs. She glanced at the little demon- brown hair tied into a ponytail with a big ribbon, a green dress, and big brown eyes- it was a good innocent looking disguise, but it could never fool her.

Hugh smiled at her."Hey Hermit! Your mom told me to outside and watch you get your pokemon! I'm glad you're finally outside for once. Not that I missed you or anything."

"And I tagged along with big bwother." a high-pitched, annoying sound came from the little demon's mouth. Mei shot the little demon a scowl, who in exchange gave her a smirk.

Hugh smiled, oblivious to the looks they were giving each other, and flung out his arm, whacking the little demon in the eye. It howled in pain and clutched its face.

_Serves that thing right!_ Mei thought to herself, extremely pleased with seeing her tormentor in pain.

Immediately, Hugh bent down so he was eye level with the little demon. He pulled the little demon into a hug, whispering into its ear,"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean too!"

The little demon stopped crying and looked up at Mei. It smirked at her and returned back to sniffling in Hugh's shoulder.

Mei scowled. Ever since she moved her and met Hugh, the little demon became jealous of how Hugh had another girl in his life. The little demon would cry for attention whenever she was around, blame things on her, trip her with her small legs, put _strange_ substances in her shoes…And when Mei would tell on the little demon, it would act as an innocent young girl. And after its Purrlion got stolen, it became worse. The little demon was one of the reasons Mei hardly ever went outside.

_Wait…if I go on a pokemon journey…then I won't ever have to see this demon again!_ A wide smile grew on Mei's face and she felt blissful laughter bubble up inside of her.

The little demon glared at her and her face contorted in disgust. Its face loosened up back into its innocent form as it let go of Hugh. It tugged on Hugh's jacket and looked up at the red-eyed boy. "Big bwother? What's wrong with it?"

"It?" Hugh and Mei asked simultaneously.

The little demon pointed straight at the brunette." It."

Mei's eye twitched in annoyance._ Little demon…I can't wait until I leave this place._"Well Hugh! Let's go and get my first pokemon!" She rushed by the little demon and grabbed Hugh's hand._"_NOW_,"_ she hissed through gritted teeth.

Her friend shot her an odd look before shrugging his shoulders.

"WAIT! BIG BWOTHER!"

"Yes?"

The little demon pointed at Mei."I wanna talk to her." It proceeded to skip up to them and pull apart their hands. The little demon went a step further and dug its claws into Mei's hands. " Bend down, big swister."

Mei was sure the little demon was going to spit acid in her ear or even rip it off. For the sake of keeping her body parts, she shook her head. "Big sister has a bad back, so why don't you talk to me from there?"

The little demon gave her an evil eye before pouting like a regular kid."Big bwother…she won't let me whisper into her ear…"

Hugh scratched his head."Uh, Mei-"

"Bad back!"

"Big bwother, you can go on ahead. I need to talk to swister in private."

Oh no.

"Um…okay."Hugh turned around and began walking away from them, stopping a couple of feet away.

Mei took a deep breath. It wasn't like the little demon could kill her. Hugh was nearby and the neighborhood people were walking around. If the little demon did anything to her, she could just scream and people would rush towards her to help.

"My big brother may like you, but I sure don't. In fact I hate you. So stay away from him. And I hope you die during your journey." The little demon then proceeded to say some words that Mei's mom would probably clean Mei's mouth out with soap if she ever said them.

How the girl wished she had the power to make the little demon explode from the inside.

One could only dream.

"I bet your father died to get away from you," the little demon said, smirking up at her.

Mei huffed to restrain herself from straight out slapping the little demon. She didn't want the little demon to pretend that she had just slapped it for no reason. And she especially did NOT want the little demon to get the reaction that it wanted. That had happened way too many times, with Mei getting scolded by the adults.

If it wanted to get nasty, then she would get nasty as well. She lowered her self down to the little demon's height. No one was close enough to hear their conversation, so she might as well say it. Mei opened her mouth to whisper about how the little's demon Purrloin willingly let itself get taken away so it could escape from it.

A hand tapped Mei shoulder. "Hey!"

The brunette dramatically whirled around in a vain effort to smack the little demon in the face with her hair. Her pigtails sailed through the air and missed the little demon.

"Hurry up! We need to get your pokemon! There's something I need to do after we start our journey!" Hugh urged impatiently.

"O-Oh yeah! Let's go! A person named Bianca is going to give me my pokemon."

Hugh nodded and turned to the little demon with smile. "Go on back home. Tell mom and dad that I'm heading off!"

The little demon nodded and put the sweetest smile it could make on its face."Okay big bwother." It turned to brunette with a malicious smile. "Bye-bye Mei…"

Mei shuddered as she watched the little demon walk into her house. She started laughing in happiness and clapped her hands. _I never have to see it ever again! _

"Hermit, what are you doing?"

"I-I'm just so HAPPY! Let's go!"

* * *

Mei watched Hugh peer through the windows of a tall brown building. "Nope." Hugh got up and brushed the dirt off his navy blue pants." That's the last building in Aspertia. I wonder where this Bianca girl is."

"It's been three hours! Where is she? I bet she would be a _pro_ at hide and go seek!" Mei yelled in exasperation. She really wanted to get out of Aspertia before the little demon could talk to her eyes casually trailed over an arch shaped building. Sunlight glinted off the green roof off it just like a beacon light pointing at ships in the sea. This building was the chosen one! Mei just knew it in her guts.

"Oh! Let's go over there!" she exclaimed and ran towards Aspertia Gate with Hugh hurrying behind her.

"Mei!" Hugh called out as the girl stepped inside the building.

"Yeah?"

"This building leads to Route 19. There's another place in Aspertia where Bianca could be, and if she isn't , I'll check the route for you." Hugh stared at the blue-eyed girl as he registered what he said. He felt his face get hot. "'I-I mean, it's not like I want to do it for you!" he quickly added.

Mei beamed at him. "Thanks! Where's the place?"

"Uh...follow me." The boy replied and stuffed his gloved hands into his pocket.

* * *

Soon they were at a white staircase. Mei's eyes squinted through the blinding sunlight trying to look at what was on the top. Though she hated to admit, Mei had never been at this part of town, even thought she lived in Aspertia for all of her life. What she hated more was that Hugh's nickname for her - Hermit - was actually true.

_So many stairs…_ Mei glanced up. She still had a couple more steps to go to the top. She was seriously out of shape.

Hugh was already at the top and looked down at Mei."Hurry up Hermit! You gotta see this view… and I found the big green hat!"

Mei nodded and gathered all her remaining energy. She rushed up the stairs until her foot stumbled on the last one.

"AHHH!" The azure sky blurred as she fell to greet the ground with her face. _THIS IS HOW I DIE!_ she thought as she braced herself for impact.

Hugh managed to grab her arm before she fell.

Mei got up slowly; one hand on Hugh's sleeve and the other one on her racing heart. "T-T-Thanks…" she murmured shakily. _  
_

"Tch. I didn't do it for you. Anyways, look."

Mei looked up to see a blonde girl slouched against the metal railings of the balcony. She wore a fluffy orange jacket, vibrant red rimmed glasses and most importantly...

A big green hat perched upon her head.

"Ah you found Bianca!" Mei whispered excitedly. She couldn't help but wonder what Bianca was thinking when she put on that hat. It looked quite... goofy.

"What? No, look above Bianca."

Mei did exactly what Hugh told her and looked up. What she saw took her breath away.

The azure blue sky was dotted with small wispy clouds. In the far distance were tall vast mountains as far as the eye could see. Closer to the three was a forest with tall trees with green leaves swaying around in the gentle wind. In the middle of the forest was a blue lake with calm water surrounded by bright flowers.

"Hermit, go wake up Bianca and get your pokemon!" He took a Pokeball out of the white bag around his waist. He spun it around on his pointer finger and smirked." Then I'll battle you."

Mei nodded and spun around, running towards the blonde. Her foot tripped on the concrete, making her awkwardly stumble around. Somehow, her foot managed to kick the sleeping girl in the arm.

Bianca yelped and woke up with a jolt, making her red framed glasses fall off. She picked them up and adjusted them back onto the bridge of her nose.

Mei gasped and bowed her head. "I'm so sorry!"

Bianca laughed half-heartily and patted her jacket. "It's okay! I'm wearing a thick jacket so it didn't hurt that much. Are you Mei?"

Mei brought her head back up and nodded vigorously.

Bianca smiled at the girl and got up from the ground."Sorry I fell asleep, I was waiting for a while and I guess I dozed off!" She bent down and picked up a metallic cylinder object. "In here is where you're going to get your first pokemon!" she explained and opened the object.

Mei gawked in amazement at the three round shiny red and white Pokeballs. Inside the transparent red material of the Pokeball, she could see a green snake-like pokemon with red eyes staring back at her.

"What's this one?" she asked.

Bianca glanced down to where Mei was pointing."That's Snivy! She's a female and a grass-type."

The Pokeball next to the Snivy held a red and black pig-like pokemon, the same kind of pokemon as the one Hugh had. Mei didn't want the same pokemon as Hugh, so Tepig was definitely not the one she wanted.

Mei peered into the next one and made a strange high-pitched noise of confusion. The Pokeball was empty! Or maybe it was a new type of pokemon that was invisible?

Bianca seemed to sense Mei's confusion." Oshawott is on hold for someone else, so it isn't available."

"Then… I'll choose Snivy!" Mei said. The older girl nodded and handed her the Pokeball. Mei held it in her hands and stared at it in awe.

Bianca laughed and dug around in her bag. She pulled out a rectangular pink machine and handed it to Mei." That's a Pokedex. It tells you the names of pokemon you encounter!" She watched the brunette stuff the device into her handbag." Why don't you try summoning Snivy?"

"I watched Christoph do this," Mei said. She hurled the Pokeball high up in the air and yelled, "COME OUT SNIVY!" The Pokeball spun around before a blinding red light beamed out from it. Snivy materialized from the light and gracefully landed on the ground.

"_Sniiii!" _she said ,observing her new trainer. The human had a very goofy smile and strange hair. Snivy snorted in disdain and crossed her arms.

Mei squealed and scooped up Snivy in her arms and thanked Bianca. She turned around to the blue-haired boy who was staring blankly at the ground.

"Hugh! Look at this! My first pokemon!" Mei shouted and held out Snivy just like the scene in the where the Aipom held up the Shinx in the _Luxray King_.

Hugh looked up and stretched his arms. "Great! How long were you going to keep me waiting? Anyways let's battle!"

Before Mei could speak, Snivy wiggled her way out of her arms and ran towards Hugh. Snivy wrapped her arms around Hugh's legs and snuggled her head against it. "Mei, tell your Snivy to get off me!" Hugh shouted trying to pry the Snivy off his leg. The grass snake looked up with pout, hugging the boy's legs even tighter.

Mei walked over and bent down. "Snivy!"

Snivy ignored her.

Mei wrapped her arms around the grass snake."Time to come back!"

Snivy hissed at the girl and proceeded to smack the girl in the face with her tail. Mei's red cheeks stung with pain and she was momentarily frozen from shock while rubbing her face. She laughed nervously, glancing at Bianca and back at Snivy. The grass type gave her a quick smirk before continuing on with her crooning.

"Bianca! I think my pokemon is malfunctioning!" Mei yelled.

The blonde girl quickly appeared by their side. Her glasses glazed over as she studied Snivy. "Come down here boy."

The blue-haired boy slowly made his way down, careful not to sit on Snivy in the process. As soon as he bent down, Snivy let go of his legs and leapt onto his lap. She gazed at him before placing a peck on his lips_. _

There was a moment of stillness before Hugh quickly grabbed the Snivy and pushed it away from him. Dropping Snivy on the ground, he coughed and forcefully wiped his mouth, a fruitless attempt of trying to get rid of what just happened. That was his _first kiss_. His first kiss was stolen by a Pokemon. He breathed out through his nose and slowly looked up at Mei.

The girl stared at them like they had grown a thousand heads and were shooting rainbows from their eyes. "GAH! MY POKEMON IS MALFUNCTIONING! "

Bianca got up and shook her head. "Snivy is in love with Hugh. This is remarkable! I can't wait to tell professor Juniper about this!"

"What?! A Pokemon is in love with me? That's not remarkable!" Hugh protested, scooting away from the Snivy who was trying to kiss him again.

Mei zoned out as the two began talking and Hugh was handed his own Pokedex. Her Snivy was in love with Hugh?

* * *

**Hugh is a tsundere(a parody of a type B. Look it up on Tv Tropes if you don't know what that means xD) in this if you couldn't tell. Also with the smacking, in the game I noticed he kind of punched his little sister in the beginning.**

**As you can probably tell, this will have SequelShipping and LiveCasterShipping(later on ) and some Hugh X Snivy! trololol.**

**pls review :D**


	2. Suspicious Town Maps

**SEEMS LIKE NO ON LIKES MY OTP OF SNIVY x HUGH (jk) There's a lot more weird things that's gonna happen later on xD**

**Pandakimchi: Why thank you :3**

**TheOneMagic: LOL**

**18Madison81:Thank you :D**

**MelodicWaters: Haha xD  
**

**Sakai Kamichi: Thank you T.T**

* * *

Bianca turned to Mei and waved a hand in her face. "Hellllo?"

Mei blinked several times. "Huh?"

Bianca smiled."Why don't you try returning Snivy back to her Pokeball?"

Hugh nodded anxiously, still moving around to avoid Snivy.

Mei pointed the Pokeball straight at Snivy. A red beam of light came out of the capsule. Snivy was too busy caressing Hugh's hands to notice the beam. The red light hit the grass snake, converting her into pixels and back into her Pokeball. The brunette girl stared at the Pokeball in awe. It was much cooler in real life then on T.V!

Hugh let out a sigh of relief and was silent for a moment to calm down from the harassment. After a while he spoke up, "Hermit, I'll head off first." He paused to look at the Pokeball in Mei's hands." And try to… fix your Snivy…" He started walking down the stairs.

"Next time we meet… Snivy won't be a malfunctioning pokemon!" Mei declared at his back. The boy paused at the bottom of the stairs to turn his head and nod.

"Well," Bianca began, "I'll show you how to catch pokemon!"

Mei shook her head," Thanks… but I already know how to because of Christoph!"

"Oh then…" Bianca dug around her bag and brought out six Pokeballs. She handed them over to Mei who gawked at them in wonder. "I'll give you Pokeballs then."

"Thanks!"

* * *

Bianca pointed to a section of the Pokecenter where there was a blue counter with two brown-haired males behind it. "And that's the Pokemart. They sell potions for if your pokemon is low on health or has a status condition."

"Status condition?" Mei asked. _Wouldn't love be a status condition?_

"Yup. Paralysis, poison- Hey where are you going?"

Mei slid to in front of the counter. The floor was slippery making Mei stumble to regain her balance. She let out a deep breath and looked at the clerk in the eye, "Do you have any love potions?"

The man raised his eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Potions to cure love."

"To cure love…" the man repeated slowly." I believe we don't young lady. I'm pretty sure there isn't even a potion for that."

"Mei?" Bianca interjected, suddenly coming out of nowhere." Did you buy anything?"

"I asked for a potion that could cure Snivy's problem."

Bianca laughed and began leading the brunette out the door," Snivy doesn't have a problem." Bianca closed her eyes and put her hands over her heart," Love is something that naturally comes. Though it is strange for a pokemon to fall in love with a human, it still can happen. Over time, Snivy might stop liking Hugh."

"Hopefully." Mei's eyes casually trailed over the city until she spotted a little brown-haired girl with a bow on her hair and her mom holding a box walking towards them. _That bow and brown hair...it's..." _It's the little demon!" Mei finished her thoughts, reaching out and clutching Bianca's fluffy jacket.

"Little demon?"

Mei nodded vigorously with a frantic look in her eyes." That-"

"Hello big swister," the little demon interrupted. Mei jumped at its voice and took a step back.

Mei's mom gave her daughter an odd look and smiled at the blonde." Bianca, right? Did Mei get a pokemon?"

"Yes she did! She got a Snivy!"

_One that's malfunctioning…_ Mei added in her head.

"How nice! And here." Mei's mom handed Mei the box. It was a shoe box with a big red bow tie wrapped around it." Those are running shoes. With those, you should be able to run faster."

Mei unwrapped the box, gaping upon the blue shoes inside. "Thanks mom!" she exclaimed, taking them out and replacing her worn out sneakers with them.

"Mhmm!" Her mom pointed to Mei's hand bag. "I put your Xtransceiver in there as well."

Mei fished around her bag and pulled out the pink colored device. She snapped it around her wrist. There was only two people in her contacts- her mom and Hugh - but it was still useful to check the time and gaze upon her Christoph wallpaper.

"I have a present for big swister too."

Mei widened her eyes at the words of the little demons. She was wary of what the little demon gave her after that time when the little demon gave her a tasty looking cake for her birthday. Turns out that cake had salmonella, and Mei had to spend the rest of her birthday suffering from horrible stomachaches. Of course when she tried to tell on the little demon, it put on the sweetest most innocent face it could muster up and said,' I don't know what you're talking about.'

"Here you go big swister. Give one too my big bwother as well, pwetty pwease." The little demon handed Mei two blue and orange rectangular objects. Mei froze, staring at the two objects in her hands. Were these bombs? Maybe they contained salmonella or biocide!

"Oh those are town maps! How sweet of you to give Mei a town map! " Mei's mom exclaimed."What should you say Mei?

"Um...Thank you." Mei's hands trembled. _These are town maps with biocide or salmonella!_ She peered into the face of the little demon. It beamed sweetly at her, before glancing to make sure none was looking and gave her a dark smirk. That got rid of any doubt. These town maps were obviously altered to be deadly. Later, Mei would dispose them. For now, she needed safe town maps.

"Can I have two more for my …friends?" Mei asked, still holding out the town maps.

"You have friends?" Mei's mom asked incredulously.

Mei shot her mom a glare.

Bianca cleared her throat."Um… I happen to have two extra ones." She brought out the town maps after fishing around in her bag. Mei signaled to her handbag with her head and watched the safe town maps fall into her bag.

"Thanks…" Mei slowly looked up pleadingly at her mom." Do I reall-"

"GO," her mom commanded, giving her daughter a stern look. "Remember? You could meet Christoph!"

"Yes sir!" Mei turned around and started walking robotically, her arms out with her hands holding the unsafe town maps.

"Stay safe!" Mei's mother called out. Once Mei was out of sight, she spoke up again, "I seriously worry about her… But she really did need to get out of the house."

"Don't worry! Your daughter will survive," Bianca replied.

"Hopefully... She hardly knows anything about pokemon and battles. Always watching those shows involving Christoph."

* * *

Mei walked through the tall grass that almost reached her knees. She didn't have a third hand to call out Snivy and she didn't want to put down the unsafe town maps because of the fear of setting it off (after holding the town map for a while, she didn't feel any different so she guessed it was a bomb.) She would have to walk quickly through the grass to avoid any pokemon.

"_Tat!" _a pokemon cried out.

Mei slowly looked down to meet the hypnotic red and yellow eyes of a Patrat. Her eyes followed her leg to where her foot was.

It was on the Patrat's tail.

Carefully, she took her foot off and slowly took a few steps back. The Patrat let out a growl and began to move. It leapt into the air, its head down for a Tackle attack. Mei screamed and swung her arm without much thought. The town map hurled through the air and hit the Patrat in the head with a thunk. It fell onto the ground with a thud, the town map clattering beside it.

Mei gasped. The town map was probably triggered. She turned on her heel and began running, waiting for the giant KABOOM to happen.

After running through the grass for awhile and hearing no kaboom, Mei turned around and walked back to the fainted Patrat and town map. She picked up the town map observing it.

Maybe it was a time bomb? She flung it far from her, and watched it from a distance.

* * *

After about thirty minutes, the Patrat clumsily got up. It stared at Mei like she was a monster and scampered away as fast as it can. Poor thing was scarred from being in the head. Mei felt bad that she had thrown a town map at it.

_I should ask Snivy why she likes…Hugh of all people. _Mei thought and brought out Snivy's Pokeball.

"Snivy come out!" she said and tossed the ball on the ground. The grass snake materialized from the red light and crossed her slender arms.

"Snivy, why do you like Hugh?"

"_Snii, " _the grass snake replied.

"His hair reminds you of a bush you use to live by?"

Snivy nodded.

A picture of Hugh with a bush for his hair popped into Mei's mind. Her cheeks puffed out as she stifled back a laugh. That was something that would stay ingrained in her head.

A couple of more minutes went by when Snivy decided to go back into her ball.

* * *

Mei watched the town map for an about an hour until a conclusion greeted her brain.

The little demon had been trolling her!_ It makes sense. _Mei thought._ The little demon knows I'm suspicious of her when she gives me presents. So she gave me REAL town maps knowing that I would think they were bombs of some sort .And now I wasted an hour of suspecting a perfectly fine town map when I could have been training Snivy! _

Mei looked at the blue sky and raised her fist in the air. "Curse you little demon!" she yelled.

She glanced in her bag at the two town maps safely tucked inside. Now she had four perfectly good town maps. She looked over at the one she had thrown earlier. It was caked in dirt and mud with a huge dent in it.

Make that three town maps.

"Hmm… One is for Hugh and one is for me," Mei thought out loud, stroking her nonexistent beard." The other one could be used in life or death situations! Perfect!"

* * *

Mei grabbed Snivy's Pokeball. A Purrloin had run into them! They had been fighting Patrats and this was their first one.

The purple cat like pokemon eyed them cautiously. Unknown to her, an aged man with wild red and orange hair was observing her from the top of a cliff.

"Come out Snivy!" Mei threw Snivy's Pokeball. The Pokeball hit the Purrloin on the head, who hissed in response.

The man sweat-dropped. " What an unusual mistake…"

Snivy came out of her ball and somersaulted backwards to avoid landing on the Purrloin's head. The Purrloin hissed at her and lashed out with a Scratch attack. Snivy quickly ducked to dodge the sharp claws slicing through the air, narrowly missing her head.

"YES! Snivy use…uh…"

Mei realized she had no idea what Snivy's moves were.

The man noticed her confused expression and sighed.

"Keep dodging Snivy!"She flipped open her pink Pokedex. "Let's see…Tackle and Leer...Tackle! Tackle!"

Snivy stepped aside as the Purrloin lunged at her. She rammed her head into the back of the Purrloin, making it fall face-first into the dirt.

"Yes!" Mei cheered. A new feeling was rising up inside of her. It was excitement, pleasure and maybe even a little bit of fear. Thrill. Pokemon battles were thrilling!

Snivy held her head high with a pride smirk on her face. The Purrloin stirred and got up, and swung its paws. Snivy yelped and quickly backed away, hissing as its claws brushed against her arm.

"NOOO! SNIVY! TACKLE IT!" Mei shrieked.

"_Sniive!"_ Snivy cried and two long vines sprouted out beneath her yellow collar around her neck. The vines lashed out at the Purrloin, smacking it in the head. The Purrloin plopped onto the ground unconscious.

"What was that?!" Mei asked.

"That was Vine Whip!" a voice called above her.

"What the- "Mei strained her neck to look at the sky. It was empty, except for a few clouds splattered around. "Was that an angel?" she murmured.

"_Snnii?"_

"I am NOT crazy!"

"Child," the voice said, louder this time. "Up here."

Mei strained her neck even further, seeing nothing in the sky. "What is this madness?!" she babbled in confusion.

"Child, _turn_ around and look up."

Mei did exactly what she was told. Her eyes trailed along the rocky cliff until she was at the top of it. A man stood there, his face full of wrinkles although his smiling gray eyes were full of youth. His red and orange hair was barely contained in a ponytail, which flowed in the wind, just like a blazing fire. His brown poncho flipped inside out as he did something a man his age should NEVER do.

He jumped off the cliff.

Mei cringed and squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see the outcome of his suicidal jump.

If she happened to be blamed for his death, she could accuse one of the kids she saw earlier along the path. Then if they found them innocent and her guilty, she would have to run away to Kanto, build an army and come back to kidnap Christoph. It was the perfect plan.

"Open your eyes child!" the man said with a hearty laugh.

"What the-?"Mei's eyes darted from the man to the cliff." You lived?"

"I'm breathing in air right now, so I can assume I'm alive."

Mei looked around to see if anyone was listening. Once the coast was clear, she whispered to the man," Are you a… mutant?"

"Mutant?"

Mei nodded and pointed to the sky." You came from there." She pointed to the cliff." Then flew there." She stomped on the ground. "Then you landed here."

The man chuckled and started walking around her." I'm not a mutant. You're quite the thinker aren't you? What's your name, child?"

Mei eyed him suspiciously as he walked around, observing her from all angles." My name is…Mei." There was something weird about this man.

"Well Mei, I'm Alder! I was observing you battle and I must say your pokemon is quite skilled." Alder stopped in front of her." Although you… How do I put it… Oh yes. You aren't quite the seasoned trainer."

An image of her decapitated head on a platter and her mom putting spices on her popped inside her head. She shook the disturbing thought out of her brain. Yep, he was definitely weird for saying 'seasoned trainer.'

"Well I can help sharpen the potential in you. Follow me." Alder turned around and began walking into a town.

_Maybe he can help me fix Snivy's love problem! _Mei thought to herself as she hurried after Alder.

* * *

"Alder?" Mei called bending down to peek inside a sewage pipe after healing Snivy up. She crinkled her noses at the smell and got up quickly.

_I probably should have asked him where his house was before he disappeared…_Mei thought as she looked around a bench. _If only I had a map…_

Mei gasped; she did have a map! Three of them in fact. _One for me, one to use in a dire situation and the last one for Hugh…Hugh!_ Mei needed to find him and give him one before he got lost.

_Hugh is my top priority right now ._Mei thought determinedly to herself as she fumbled with her town map. The town map beeped on, showing the whole Unova region electronically. She touched where Floccesy Town was and the machine zoomed in on it.

It was just a green blur.

"What the- THIS IS UTERALLY USELESS!" Mei complained loudly, earning a strange look of an elderly woman watering flowers nearby.

"Young lady, are you okay?" she asked.

"U-Um…Yes. Do you know where Alder's house is?"

* * *

Alder watched the brunette girl walk up to him."What took you so long, child?" He had nearly been waiting for about an hour.

"I didn't know where your house was," Mei explained.

Alder scratched his wild mess of hair."Well…I did leave you by the Pokecenter correct?"

"Yes! Then I left the Pokecenter and you weren't there. And I had to look EVERYWHERE in town for you. Except here of course."

Alder laughed half-heartily. To get to his house from the Pokecenter, you just had to follow a straight path that led to his house." Well I have some…fun stuff for us to do so-"

"Actually I have to give a town map to my friend," Mei interrupted."I can come by later right?"

"Of course, of course. Who is your friend?"

"Hugh! He has blue hair like this!" Mei motioned a huge afro above her head. "And he has really small eyes." Mei's eyes squinted to emphasize her description more.

"Is that so…how old is this young man?"

"He's fourteen - just like me- but he was born four months ahead of me."

"Fourteen you say?" Alder smiled." I believe I saw him go over to route 20." He pointed to a grassy pathway that led up to a bridge." Tell him to come with you to train with us."

"I will. Thank you!" Mei bowed her head and walked towards the path.

"Tell him I have candy!" Alder yelled after her.

Mei was definitely coming back.

* * *

**Please review! It only takes a couple secs :D**


	3. Arrival at Floccesy Ranch

**Thanks for all the follows/faves! I would appreciate it if you could drop a review though. Gives me more motivation :)**

**TheOneMagic:Haha! You'll find out his secret hobby in the next chapter :D**

**Sakai Kamichi: His hair does look like a bush!**

* * *

Hugh stared up at the sky, deep in his thoughts. Where was Mei? He leaned against the wooden fence guarding Floccessy Ranch. Inside were suppose to be rare Pokemon you couldn't get anywhere in Unova. He was sure Mei would hear about that and head straight here.

"It's not like I want to see her…" he muttered, craning his neck at the path in front of him for signs of brown pigtails.

* * *

As soon as Mei came into sight, a boy wearing brown shorts and an orange jersey pointed at her. "I'm Terrell and I challenge you to a pokemon battle!" he shouted. Before Mei could agree to anything, he threw a Pokeball in the air.

A Patrat came out, its tail thumping against the ground in a silent rhythm.

Mei smiled in excitement. This was her first real pokemon battle! "YEAH! I accept your challenge!" Mei replied and chucked Snivy's Pokeball in the air.

"Tat!" The Pokeball bounced off the Patrat's belly, with Snivy materializing beside it.

"H-Hey! Watch your aim!"

"Sorry!"she lied. She didn't really care where she'd thrown the Pokeball. This was her first real pokemon battle! "Alright Snivy, use Vine Whip!"

Two slender vines grew out under Snivy's neck. They lashed out at the Patrat, slapping its cheeks rapidly.

Mei gasped as she watched her Pokemon slapped the Patrat silly with her vines. _Snivy has no problem attacking this guy's Pokemon…Maybe her love condition is gone!_

The Patrat managed to quickly duck as a vine sliced through the air above it. It rammed its head at Snivy's leg's, making her stumble and fall.

"Good job Patrat! Tackle again!"

The Patrat butted its head again into Snivy, flinging her into the winced as she watched her pokemon thud against the ground. This was not going well...

"Another Tackle should do it!"

Mei flapped her arms around in panic, watching the Patrat charge towards her pokemon again ." Snivy! Get up! Get up up!"

_"Sni…"_ Snivy lifted her head slowly, only to be tackled into by the Patrat. _"Snivv!"_ she cried out, sliding against the ground with dust trailing behind her.

"That's it! Snivy, kick up more dust!" Mei yelled, suddenly getting an idea. The grass snake was already on it. She swished her tail back and forth on the dirt, kicking up more dust. Soon she was completely hidden from view. Mei smirked. "Ha! Now your Patrat can't see where Snivy is!"

The boy shook his head, smirking as well." Actually, Patrat all have an acute sense of vision, so a dust cloud is nothing for them! Let's show her what that means Patrat!"

Patrat chattered in agreement and began scampering towards the dust cloud.

"Oh no, this can't be!" Mei said, beads of sweat forming on her head. Wait... Wasn't the dust cloud going to irritate Snivy's eyes? The idea she thought was so good was actually a terrible idea! "Squint your eyes Snivy! Squint them! Then wrap your vines around that little bugger when it comes close!"

Two vines flung out from the cloud . They wrapped around the Patrat's waist, hoisting it up into the air. Snivy brought her vines down quickly, just like a whip, and the Patrat hit the ground, fainting.

"Good job," Terrell recalled his Patrat. He turned to Mei with his head hung low."I'll give you your battle money…"

"Keep it."

Terrell looked up gaping in surprise. "Keep the money?"

Mei nodded. To be honest, she didn't even know how to receive the money.

Terrell grinned widely."Thank yo-"

"-I want you to give me all your potions." She wasn't sure what exactly the stuff did, but she was sure it would come in handy sooner or later.

The youngster's smile fell. "Well…Okay." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his shorts and fished around. He brought out twenty blue bottles.

"WHOA! INCREDIBLE!" Mei exclaimed in disbelief and opened up her bag. Bug-eyed, she stared at the potions raining into her bag. "How did so many fit inside your pants?"

"My shorts are magical. Shorts are the best!" he exclaimed.

"Cool! Thanks for the potions!" Mei replied and began walking.

* * *

"I told you! A kid with NO gym badges is never gonna make it through here!"

Mei stood on her tippy toes so she would be at least up to the chubby man's chin. She looked right into the hiker's tired looking eyes. "Who says?" she taunted.

"I say."

"…Do you even have the first gym badge? "

The man paused before speaking, "Well no, no one really does since the first gym isn't open yet. But it's opening soon! And you need to go challenge that place first to test your skills! The trainers down there are really tough- I learned that the hard way."

"My pokemon are tough! We trained with all the trainers in this area! And I have a secret weapon in my bag for certain situations. SECRET. WEAPON," she repeated for emphasis.

The man gave her an odd look. "Uh...Okay... Anyways, your pokemon may be tough, but not tough enough for the trainers down there."

"Well I need to look for my friend!" Mei yelled and started marching around the man.

The man pushed out his belly, making Mei stumble near the edge of the cliff, kicking some pebbles off. The man quickly pulled her back, before there was tombstone on the ground engraved _'RIP MEI. She fell off a cliff because a man pushed her with his tummy_'.

"You nearly killed me sir!" Mei gasped, trying to regain control of her racing heart beat. Hopefully, nothing like that would EVER happen again on her journey. Or else she was going to retreat back to her home, where she was safe and sound. But she needed to be outside to meet Christoph.

"Sorry. What does your friend look like?" the man asked, pulling Mei away from her thoughts.

"A boy with blue hair and red eyes."

The man shook his head." No one like that is down there. Have you tried Floccessy Ranch?"

"Floccessy Ranch?"

"Yep! There's a lot of rare Pokemon you get there. You just have to go over there…"

* * *

The saying 'the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence' was certainly true for Floccessy Ranch. The grass was a lush, darker green then the grass at route 20. Mareeps bleated playfully beyond a fence. In front of Mei was a large red barn, surrounded by stacks of hay.

"Hey! Hermit!"

Mei turned around to see Hugh waving his hand as he briskly walked towards her."Hi!" she greeted.

"I was waiting for you. How long were you even taking? You had me worr-" He stopped himself from sprouting 'nonsense'." Tch," he finished.

"You were waiting for me?"

Hugh felt his face get hot. He lowered his head so that Mei wouldn't be able to see his blush." I-I mean-"

"-Cus I was looking for you!" Mei exclaimed happily.

Hugh lifted his head up. "Y-You were?"

Mei nodded with a determined face." I want a battle! Snivy trained real hard and now her problem should be gone!"

"Alright! I'll see how strong you two got!" He tossed out his Pokeball."Come out Tepig!"

A red and black pig-like pokemon came out. Tepig's pink snout wiggled around as he looked around, adapting to his new surroundings. He noticed Mei and blinked up at her with his big round eyes.

"AWWWWWWW…. IT'S SO CUTE!" Mei squealed and dropped on her knees. She clapped her hands together. "Come here piggy!"

The Tepig stared at her warily.

Hugh nudged his Pokemon with a reassuring smile," Go on Tepig. She won't bite."

"I won't bite!" Mei repeated.

The Tepig nodded and trotted to the brunette girl. Mei brought her head down to be eye level with the Tepig which made her in an awkward looking sitting/laying down position.

"You know, this thing is like basically... walking pork!" she mused. Tepig gave her a look of horror and retreated back to his trainer, squealing as he dug his head into Hugh's pants.

"M-Mei! Why would you say that?!" Hugh chided, as he bent down to comfort the poor pokemon.

Mei awkwardly twirled a strand of her hair with a finger. "Hehe...Sorry guys. I guess I must be hungry..."

Tepig wailed even louder.

"Mei!"

"S-Sorry! Oh yeah! Here." She dug in her bag and pulled out one of the town tossed it to Hugh. "I find it useless, but the little demo- I mean your little sister told me to give it to you."

"She shouldn't have…" Hugh smiled softly. Mei rolled her eyes. The demon had tricked him good.

"Well thanks for giving it to me."

"Mhmm!" The girl took a few steps back." Now for our pokemon battle!"

"Right!"

"Go Snivy! Show them your prowess!" Mei hurled the Pokeball aimlessly into the air. The capsule flew backwards, hitting the ground a few feet behind Mei.

"_Sni…" _muttered Snivy as she materialized, quite embarrassed by her trainer's lack of skill at throwing the Pokeball correctly. And in front of the one she loved!

"Nice throw Hermit!"Hugh said snickering.

The girl whipped her head around, shooting him a glare."See how well Snivy can aim! Vine Whip!"

"Vine Whip?! Don't you know about type advantages?!" the boy yelled, dumbfounded by her choice. " Staying home all those years really didn't help you with battling, did it?"

"I have faith in Snivy, Hugh! And besides I never watched any of those battling shows." Mei grinned as she watched the grass snake run toward the Tepig with her vines out and ready.

Snivy ran around the Tepig who snorted in confusion.

Mei's jaw dropped. _She isn't gonna?! _

Snivy rocketed upwards, using her vines as a launch pad in front of Hugh.

"Snivy NO!" Mei shrieked running towards them.

"_Sniii!"_

Hugh looked up to see a smiling Snivy with her arms stretched out. "W-Wah!" he yelled, terrified. Snivy landed in his hair, sniffing it.

Mei stopped in front of him and let out a breath of relief." I thought she was going to attack you."

"Mei! I thought you said your Snivy wouldn't do this!" he snapped.

Mei laughed nervously. "I guess I was wrong!" She took out her Pokeball, aimed it, and watched as a beam of light shot out and hit Snivy, returning her back into it.

"Anyways...while I was waiting for y..." he trailed off, his face suddenly feeling warm. That was odd. It was pretty cool outside.

"Are you sick?" Mei asked.

He stared at her. She could really say the most random things."Sick? I'm not sick at all!"

The brunette looked at him with a puzzled expression. "But your face is really red..." Mei swept away Hugh's bangs and placed her hand on her forehead. Hugh stared at her with widened eyes, his face turning even redder.

"Hah...Maybe I am sick..." Hugh murmured as he scooted backwards, suddenly feeling uncomfortable around Mei.

"Yeah! Your face was burning up!" A dreamy look took place on her face. "Imagine… A hot balloon ride with me and Christoph…"

Hugh frowned. He remembered when he first hatched Tepig and barged into Mei's house to brag about it. The hermit girl had been staring intensely at the television screen at some dude with green hair while chanting 'Christoph' . He had run out immediately with a gut wrenching hate for this Christoph person. That gut wrenching feeling of hatred came back.

"You know you're never going to meet him," he spat out.

Mei groaned."Again with this you're never going to meet him stuff! Just like what Justin Bidoof said, never say never!"

Hugh rolled his eyes. "Come on, Justin Bidoof?"

"He's a fine philosopher, that Bidoof... Ohh... Look at those Mareeps. I bet they would make fine pillows." Mei commented, her attention shifting to something else.

The blue headed sheep Pokemon were frolicking along with each other. Some lazily rolled in grass, getting the blades of grass stuck in their wool.

"Ah!" Hugh dug in his bag and brought out a Pokeball. "While I was here… I caught a Mareep for you."

Mei's eyes sparkled." For me?!"

Hugh shook his head rapidly, "N-No! N-Not for you! I caught it and then I decided it wouldn't fit my team. So I decided to give it to you." He tossed the Pokeball to the brunette.

The girl caught it and peered inside the Pokeball in wonder. The Mareep inside blinked at her.

She tackled Hugh in a hug.

Hugh blushed again. "H-H-Hey! M-Mei!"

"Thank you Hugh!" She looked up at him." What'd you name it?"

His face turned an even deeper shade of red in realization of that their faces were just inches apart Hugh quickly turned his head to stare at the trees. "N-Name? U-Uh…You name it!"

"I'll name it…Fluffy then! In honor of your hair!"

"W-What? Are you saying my hair is fluffy?!"

Before Mei could reply, Snivy broke out of her Pokeball and landed between their heads. _"Veeeee!" s_he hissed as she tried to pushed the two's heads from each other.

"I thought there was some ruckus here! Hey! Go on a date somewhere else!" yelled a gruff voice.

"D-D-Date?!" Hugh stuttered, his face turning even redder. Quickly, he pushed Mei away from him. "We're not dating!" he protested. Mei nodded, as she returned Snivy back into her ball.

"Really?"

They nodded.

"Sorry kiddos," replied the man with the gruff voice. He wore a red bandana around his forehead, with an outline of a Pokeball on it. He wrapped his arms around the woman next to him.

Hugh scratched the back of his head. "Who are you two?"

The man held his head high with a proud smile," Who are we? Well, I'm the owner of this ranch! And this here is my beautiful wife-"

"Hello," the woman next to him with short brown hair with a green visor said.

"-And this here is our Herdier."

"_Woof!" _barked the terrier pokemon, that came out from its hiding spot behind the couple.

The man looked down at the Herdier and back up at the two trainers. " You two wouldn't happen to see another Herdier here, would ya?"

"No…why?"Hugh asked.

"Well…" the man began slowly, exchanging glances with his wife," I can't figure out where one went…We had two Herdiers that were always together. But then one has wandered off suddenly. I'm a little worried…"

"_Yarp…" t_he Herdier whined, obviously missing its friend.

Hugh shook, his hands balled into fists by his sides. He stared at the couple, his red eyes glinting with anger. "You're a little worried?! A LITTLE?!"

The man was taken aback by Hugh's sudden loud tone of voice." W-Well- Herdier-"

"Whatever! I'll go look for it! Hermit! Help me!" Hugh whipped around and stormed off.

The man was flustered."W-Why'd he get so mad? I bet Herdier is just playing around in the ranch somewhere."

Mei watched Hugh surveying every bush, tree, and patch of grass near them. This whole scene reminded her of something. She pursed her lip as bits of her memory came back. Closing her eyes in concentration, memories flowed back to her, playing like a little movie in her head.

* * *

She had been eight when everything had happened. She had hidden herself from society after her mom rushing home and sobbing to her that her father had 'disappeared' during one of his scientific trips.

Mei moped around in the house, her mom having to feed her herself for awhile. She never went outside, thinking that her 'disappeared' father would find his way back home to her. Soon months went by, and her mom and her made a silent agreement to never bring up the word 'dad'.

One day, after Mei had pushed away her dad in the back of her brain, it was the little demon's birthday. Mei HATED to go the party and made an excuse that she sick (mixing the salad dressing and other sauces created a very realistic looking vomit) and missed the party. The little demon had gotten a Purrloin from Hugh and the two had come over to Mei's house often. Whenever Hugh wasn't looking, the little demon's Purrloin decided that Mei was a good scratching post.

Then a couple of days later, Hugh barged into her house again in tears. He told her that the little demon's Purrloin had gotten stolen by a group of people( Mei couldn't remember who), and Mei's heart did a little happy dance. She immediately hooted with joy, earning a strange look from Hugh.

The little demon's Purrloin being stolen had been the best news she gotten all year. Of course Hugh didn't feel that well. He made Mei go outside for the first time in months and search around everywhere in Aspertia City, hoping that Team Plasma had hid the pokemon somewhere there. With no luck, that glimmer of hope soon faded away.

* * *

_That's why…he's acting like this…_Mei realized._ Getting super mad when a pokemon gets stolen because his precious 'little sister's' stupid Purrloin got stolen._

"Young lady? You okay?" the man asked, concern clear in his voice. She had been standing in the same spot, spacing out with a dazed expression. It wasn't something you saw a person do everyday.

Mei blinked and nodded. She smiled at the couple."I'll go look for your Herdier as well! I swear I'm gonna find it!" With that said, she ran off towards Hugh.

* * *

**:D**


	4. Stupid Ninja at Floccesy Ranch

**AN: ****I don't own Pokemon.**

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**Sakai Kamichi: You wonder?**

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* * *

Mei ran to catch up to where Hugh was standing. Panting, she stopped by him to catch her breath. She was really out of shape after rarely going outside for so many years.

"Hey, you okay?" Hugh asked, reaching out an arm. His arm wavered above her figure, unsure of whether or not to touch her. Mei shifted, and he drew back his arm.

She got up abruptly and gave Hugh a thumbs up." I'm doing great! What about you? You said you were sick. I can carry you if you want me to."

"I-I'm not sick anymore." Hugh snorted and crossed his arms. "I doubt someone like you could carry me."

"Is this a challenge I hear?" Mei asked, raising an eyebrow. In a swift movement she scooped up the boy in her arms. His weight overwhelmed her, and she crumpled on the ground with Hugh sprawled out on her arms. Mei struggled to get crawl out under the boy. Giving up, her face fell flat on the ground. "Urk...You're heavy..." she murmured in a muffled voice.

"I told you couldn't pick me up!" Hugh retorted,blushing furiously and got off her quickly. "H-Here," he said, reaching out his hand towards the girl on the ground.

Mei smiled up at him as she took his hand and was pulled up by the boy. "You saved me! Thank-"

"I-It's not like I did it for you!" Hugh interrupted, his face becoming even redder. He cleared his throat and focused on the deeper parts of the ranch, filled with trees. "I-I bet Herdier is in there! I'll go first so I don't distract your Snivy," he said quickly and ran off at the speed of light.

"What a strange boy..." Mei mused.

Hugh dove behind a wide oak tree. He scooted around the base of the tree, so he could peek at the path from his spot. He watched Mei confront an old man. It wasn't like he was going to stalk her or anything.

* * *

The old man in a janitor outfit stoked his mustache thoughtfully. "Popcorn was Orville's passion… Though these zebras won't leave Orville alone! Orville called them upon everywhere! Rice of grain is the hands of the future!" The old man used his broom stick to sweep the grass. A Pokeball rolled out from the hairs of the broom, and a Mareep popped out.

"_Baa," _it bleated.

_This guy must be CRAZY…_ Mei thought to herself. She decided that the old man was declaring a battle, and she tossed out Snivy's Pokeball.

"_Sni,"_ said the grass snake, shooting her trainer a glare before holding her head high.

"Snivy use Vine Whip!" Mei commanded.

Snviy turned her head the other way and crossed her arms. _"Sni."_

"Then Orville began to fly into volcanoes! Magical experience would be the world's answer." The old man began shaking so violently, that Mei was scared he was about to explode or something.

"THE GIANT MONKEY GOLDEN BALL OF GRASSY NAILS!" he roared anti-climatically and stopped shaking.

His Mareep turned its head around, shooting its trainer a scared look.

"Snivy use Vine Whip?" Mei repeated, losing more and more confidence.

"_Sni!"_ Snivy stood there and didn't move an inch.

Hugh craned his neck around the tree to see the battle that was happening. He did a double-take to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"What are they doing?" he whispered to himself. Mei was talking to an unresponsive Snivy, and the man was spouting gibberish as his Mareep stood as still as a statue.

"Ermahgerd! Orville's rottermodel will demolish the world! LIKE THUNDARRR!"

Mareep took that as a command and its wool sparked up. A stream of weak electricity emitted from it and sizzled through the air.

"Dodge whatever that thing is!" Mei cried out.

Snivy shook her head and stood still. The Thunder Wave zapped Snivy, and sparks danced around her body, constricting how she moved.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Mei shrieked and grabbed Snivy's paralyzed body. She glared at the Mareep. "You…You MONSTER!"

"_Reep,"_ it replied.

"I will send out MY Mareep that my friend gave to me!" Mei grabbed Fluffy's and chucked it into the air. It flew towards the opposing Mareep, bonking it in the head.

"_Reeep," _Fluffy grunted as he came out of the Pokeball. He eyed the other Mareep and snorted in disdain.

"I like your burning spirit! Um…Hold on." The Pokedex whirled on as it greeted with a beep. Mei clicked a few buttons and zipped through Mareep's profile. "Tackle!" she commanded.

Fluffy lowered his head and charged into the other Mareep. The other Mareep bleated in surprise and fell onto its side. Fluffy tripped on the old man's pokemon and fell on top of it, knocking the wind out of the poor pokemon.

"_Baaa_!" Fluffy grunted as he rolled off the other Mareep. He got off the Mareep, but was struggling to get off from its side by flailing his stubby legs.

"Yes! Eat that you crazed old man!" Mei yelled and returned her Mareep to his Pokeball.

"Orville…is GORGEOUS!" the elderly old man shouted and got on all fours, crawling backwards into the depths of the forest. His Mareep stumbled up and slowly hopped over after its trainer.

"_Sniiiii!Snivyy!"_ Snivy said angrily, eyes narrowing and crossing her arms.

Mei widened her eyes." Me liking Hugh?I hugged him in honor of magical friendship! I like…this guy!" Mei turned on her Xtransceiver and went to the home screen. She showed Snivy the picture of Christoph on it.

Snivy sighed in relief. Moments later, her eyes sparkled as her mouth fell wide open into a smile. "_Snnniivvy!"_

"Uh…" Mei replied, sweat dropping. _I doubt Hugh would want to marry a Snivy…_

* * *

Hugh came out of his hiding spot. He rummaged through his bag and took a paralysis heal. " Hermit! Catch!"

"What?" Mei turned her head around just in time to be smacked in the face by the yellow bottle. "Ack!" she yelped, rubbing her forehead. The potion clattered beside her.

Hugh scratched the back of his head, "Not that I care about you…but you okay?"

Mei stopped rubbing her forehead and frowned." You don't care about me?"

The blue-haired boy flushed as he scratched his head. "N-n-no, it's, I-" He was interrupted by Mei's boisterous laughter. "W-Wha?" he stammered, dumbfounded.

"You're so fun to mess with, Hugh. "

"_Snnnivy!" _the grass snake cooed, reaching out her arms. She cringed as sparks jumped around her body, restricting her from moving.

"I gave you that paralysis heal...But use it when I'm not here."

"Yes sir!" Mei hopped onto her feet and ran off with a paralyzed Snivy tucked under her arms.

* * *

"_Yaaarp!"_

Mei perked up at the bark. _That sounds like a Herdier! Or maybe I'm going crazy…_

Hugh suddenly appeared next to her, looking off into the distance. "Did you hear that?"

The girl tensed up from his sudden appearance. Seeing that it was only her friend, Mei sighed and relaxed her shoulders." I thought I was going crazy… Yeah, I did hear it."

"It was the Herdier for sure." He started walking off to a small section of the ranch filled with grass. " I'll look over here!"

"I'll look down here then!" Mei called after him. Feeling like a detective, she strode through a path of grass with her hands on her hips.

"Would you be quiet?!" yelled a gruff voice.

Mei looked through a couple of trees. She gasped; there was an orange-haired man in the strangest ninja costume Mei had seen, cornering a Herdier. The shaggy pokemon let out a whine as it bumped against the tree.

"Got you now, you little pest." The orange-haired man in the strange ninja costume held out his hands like he was about to claw the pokemon.

"This is… where the climax starts!" Mei whispered and fished around in her bag. She grabbed the town map and smirked as a new power fueled inside of her.

"Stop man, dressed in a bad ninja costume, in the name of LOVE!" Mei shouted, barging out of the forest. She held out the town map like she was about to shoot a gun. _I sounded so cool!_ She thought to herself and pumped her fist in the air.

The man stared at her like she was an alien. "What the heck?!"

Mei threw back her head and laughed. She stopped and smirked at the man. "Hello stupid ninja."

He glared at Mei, "Stupid ninja?! And what do you mean bad ninja costume?! This- "he motioned at the grey morph suit and vest he was wearing," happens to b-"

"YARP!" the Herdier barked loudly, interrupting him.

"That's a cry of a Herdier! I'm guessing you found it! I'll go tell the owners!" Hugh shouted from beyond the trees surrounding Mei and the man.

The man widened his eyes at Hugh's alert. He shot Mei a glare." Tch. You stupid brat…"

"Well stupid ninja-"

The man face palmed." Would you STOP calling me stupid ninja? I happen to be a member of Team Plasma, a group who strikes fear into the hearts of people of those who stand before it! And this 'stupid ninja costume' is our uniform! "A smug smirk formed on his face." Ever heard of us?"

_They do sound familiar…_Mei gasped as she pointed a finger at him. "You're that electrical power company! But why is that stupid ninja costume your uniforms? Doesn't look very safe againest electricity..."

" E-Electrical power company? You… How DARE you mistake Team Plasma as an electrical power company!"

Mei rolled her eyes. "Well with a name like Team PLASMA, I can only assume it's an electrical power company."

"You annoying brat! We are the group that tried to CONQUER Unova two years ago to liberate pokemon!"

Mei had this nagging feeling in her brain. _Liberate pokemon...Why does that sound so familiar?_ She shrugged off the feeling; right now there were more important things to be dealt with.

The man scowled at Mei's blank expression." Whatever, brats like you will never understand us." He sighed." So annoying… First I get lost by chasing this Herdier and now this dumb kid is irritating me…"

"Well EXCUSE ME, stupid ninja!" Mei yelled, offended by 'dumb kid'.

"Why you… TAKE THIS!" He reached inside his vest and pulled out a disk. He pulled his arm back, just like throwing a Frisbee, and tossed it at Mei.

"THAT'S GONNA CHOP MY HEAD OFF!" Mei screamed and squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the gruesome pain that was going to come.

"What? No, it missed and landed by your feet!"

She ignored him. "Two can play at this game!" Mei quickly chucked the town map she was holding. With her terrible aim, the town map sailed past the man's head, and bounced off a nearby tree.

The man blinked, taking a moment to realize what had happened. He looked over shoulder at the dented town map to make sure he wasn't imagining things. His finger rose shakily to point at Mei." Y-You're crazy! That could have seriously injured me!"

"At least I'm not crazy enough to wear a NINJA COSTUME," she retorted. She hurried next to the Herdier and latched her arms around its neck, glaring up at the man. "Come at me bro!"

"I told you this is a UNIFORM!" he screeched and checked his watch and swore under his breath. He sent Mei a glare, before taking out a small round object. "I wasted too much time here with you annoying me," the man mumbled. He threw down the object and smoke spread out from it like a gray fog.

Mei coughed and burrowed her cheek into the Herdier's furry neck. There was no way she was going to let the stupid ninja get away with the pokemon. She opened her eyes, which immediately began to water up from the smoke that blocked her vision. She closed them again. "YOU CHEATER! SMOKE BOMBS AREN'T ALLOWED!" she shouted in frustration.

* * *

"Woof!" the Herdier barked after awhile, and wiggled its way out of her grasp.

"H-Herdier?" Mei called out, her eyes still shut closed. She felt around for Herdier's warm body, and touched something warm, but not furry. "Herdier? Where did all your fur go?"

"Open your eyes, Hermit."

"Pokemon can TALK?" Mei blurted out, excitement bubbling up inside her. _This is amazing! Wait… that voice sounded like Hugh._ Her excitement drained away as she opened her eyes to confirm her thoughts.

Hugh loomed over her so she could only see his chin." Could you…uh… let go of my leg?" he asked, in a slightly awkward tone.

She laughed nervously and let go. Getting up, her eyes surveyed the area. The Team Plasma guy had disappeared.

"That dirty cheater…" Mei muttered.

"Dirty cheater?" Hugh repeated." Who?"

"It was a man dressed in a ninja costume… Oh! Did you guys see a man dressed in a strange ninja suit?"

"A man dressed in a strange ninja suit…" the ranch owner said, alerting Mei of his presence. He shook his head." Can't say we saw him. I'm sure someone dressed like that would have stuck out like a sore thumb."

Mei frowned. "He said he was part of Team Plasma…"

Hugh stared at her in disbelief." Team Plasma?!"

"Yeah. I thought they were an electrical company."

The boy paled, as his eyes glazed over, like he was looking through Mei. His voice trembled as he whispered quietly." T-They're the…"

"Thanks for finding my Herdier you two!" the ranch owner said, not hearing Hugh talk. Herdier sat by him, its tail wagging in happiness that it was reunited with its owner.

Hugh snapped out of his daze and scowled at the rancher's smiling face. "You're pretty calm."

The man rubbed the back of his neck. He didn't know how he was doing it, but he was getting on the boy's nerves often. "W-well-"

"Don't you realize that your pokemon could have been gone for good?! Team Plasma was about to steal it! Just like they did with my sister's Purrloin!" Hugh yelled, his whole body shaking.

The gears in Mei's brain whirled together_. That's why Team Plasma sounded familiar! They're the heroes who stole the little demon's Purrloin…Now I feel kinda bad throwing that town map at him. Speaking of town map… _Mei grabbed the dented town map; it would help her later on. She took the disk that the stupid ninja had thrown as well. Looking in her bag for a place to put the disk, she found a tin box with a symbol shaped like the disk on it. "Huh…" she mumbled and placed the CD in there.

Meanwhile, the rancher stared at Hugh with eyes the size of saucers."I-I'm sorry, I- didn't-"

"Whatever," Hugh interrupted," take good care of Herdier from now on." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and began to walk.

"Wait! Hugh!" Mei called, remembering Alder's promise of candy. Candy would help cheer his mood!

He looked over his shoulder." Yeah?"

"Wait for me! I need to take you somewhere." She waved good-bye to the ranch owner before catching up to her friend.

"Y-You're going to…take me somewhere?" he repeated.

"Yes!" the brunette exclaimed, "It's a place we can train and get candy! I might even be able to cure Snivy! Then we could have a REAL pokemon battle!"

"I'm pretty sure Snivy can't be cured like that…" he muttered, while scratching his cheek. "Tch. I suppose I'll go with you."

* * *

"There are you child! I have been waiting for awhile. I can tell you and your pokemon have grown!" Alder greeted. He was leaning against a fence with his wild hair flowing behind him in an epic way.

"Hello!" Mei shouted and then whispered to Hugh," That's Alder. He jumped off a cliff when I first met him."

"That's Alder? Wow…"Hugh stared in wonder at the old Pokemon Champion, who was also looking back at Hugh, his eyes trailing all over his body. The boy shifted in discomfort; it felt like the man was gazing down at him to his very pores.

Alder nodded in approval." Is this Hugh? What a _delicious_ looking young man."

Hugh nearly barfed at the word 'delicious'. He gave Mei a nervous glance who grinned excitedly in return.

"Well, come inside into my house. I need your help." Alder walked into his house, which was made out of rundown wood with splinters poking out. On the top of the orange roof tiles of the house was a huge wooden sign with a Pokeball engraved on it. Pretty shabby for a previous Champion.

"Let's go!~" Mei sang, skipping towards the blue door framed with Pokeball stickers. Hugh grabbed her arm, pulling her backwards. She stumbled into him, making him blush yet again.

"A-Ah…" He gently pushed her away from him. "D-Don't you think…Alder is a bit _strange_?"

"Strange? Well…I guess saying seasoned trainer is pretty strange…"

"Yeah! And he called me delicious." He glanced at the wooden door of Alder's house. It was shaking like someone from the other side was trying to open it, which made him feel a even greater sense to run."Hurry! Let's-"

The blue door creaked open. Alder popped out his head, his wild mess of hair barely fitting through the door frame. "Are you two coming? I have candy?"

"OH CANDY!" Mei squealed and ran inside before Hugh could stop her. The boy sighed. Looks like he would have to save her.

* * *

Hugh swung open the door dramatically and peered inside. The first thing that caught his attention was a huge indie style carpet that was draped over some stairs in the back of the room. Suspicious red marks were splattered on it. On back wall from him, were three Pokeballs.

"Oh Hugh! Sit down!" Mei called from below him. Her hand grabbed his, pulling him down. The boy plopped down next to Mei. Across from him was a mousy looking girl with glasses and brown hair tied in to two ponytails. Next to the girl was a young boy, whose hand was being held by Alder. Hugh eyed Alder warily, and noticed that the man had Pokeballs stringed together slung around his neck.

Pokeballs on his house. Pokeballs in his house. Pokeballs on him. Hugh knew for sure that Alder had a fetish for Pokeballs.

"Well, you two. I was hoping you would help me with something here." Alder began and looked at the young boy next to him.

Hugh blinked. Alder had a ravenous glint in his eyes for a moment.

"Mr. Alder, what happened to the other girl that came early?" the mousy looking girl asked.

Alder licked his lips." I gave her some candy… and she had a rather unfortunate accident."

Hugh glanced at the suspicious red marks on the carpet. Everything was starting to make sense! 'Delicious looking' and 'seasoned trainer', now Hugh knew why Alder had said them! He needed to get Mei out of here FAST.

"Speaking of which, do you children want some CANDY?" Alder asked, intercepting his thoughts. The mousy girl and young boy nodded zealously at the word 'candy'.

"No," Hugh replied quickly, earning strange looks from the other people.

"You don't want candy?" The mousy looking girl and young boy asked simultaneously, their eyes wide in disbelief.

"Yeah. I heard the gym in Aspertia is open! Let's go Mei!" Hugh jolted upwards, tugging on Mei's white shirt.

"Yeah!" Mei got up and the two rushed out of the door, slamming it behind them.

* * *

The two ran as fast as they could to the nearby Pokecenter, in fear of Alder chasing after them. As soon as the automatic doors slid open, the two barged inside, and plopped onto the green sofas.

Mei crept over to the door, peering through the glass material. She ran back to where Hugh was. "He didn't follow us!" She sat down into the chair and lowered head back against the wall in relief. Her head jerked forward as realization dawned upon her, and her eyes grew wide." What about those kids there?!"

"Oh man, you're right! Come on, let's go back and rescue them!"

Mei shuddered at the thought of being in Alder's house again." Sometimes, others have to make sacrifices for others to live."

Hugh blinked and plopped back into his chair."That…was pretty deep to be coming out of you."

"Thanks!"

"Well, maybe I'm being paranoid, but I couldn't help but think that Alder was just like that witch from Hansel and Gretel. Fattening kids with candy and eating them." He glanced at Mei and smiled at her bewildered expression. "I know right? That's too crazy to be real."

Mei shrugged. "I was thinking that he kidnapped children and fed them so much candy that they would throw up. And then Alder would eat the ba-"

"Ugh, gross! Stop! Why would you even think that?!" Hugh rebuked, cringing from the mental image.

"Well, Alder eating children isn't that much different from him eating children's-"

"W-Whatever. Let's go to sleep and check if the gym really did open tomorrow."

* * *

The mousy looking girl sighed in exasperation at her teacher rolling around on the floor laughing." Mr. Alder how was that part of our training?" The young boy nodded in agreement.

Alder snorted. He stopped, wiping a tear from his eyes. "It WASN'T! When you're my age, you need at least SOME form of entertainment. Did you see the looks from that boy with the pineapple hair? Priceless, I tell you. Priceless… And that girl... The way her face lit up when I said I would give them candy... They have some of the best reactions ever!" He started shaking with laughter again.

"What a troll…" the young boy muttered, rolling his eyes.

* * *

**So about the crazy janitor guy. In the game, there's a janitor guy who is for some reason in the middle of the ranch. Why would he been in there, unless he was crazy or something? I mean, does he sweep grass? **


	5. Versus Cheren

**TheOneMagic: lol**

**Gemstone Gal & PandaKimchi & Sakai Kamichi & Ashleychanx & the alphabet soup:Thank you!**

**FireDragonX23:=D**

**ikutolover182: LOL ,I guess you could say that xD**

**Gembell:Haha,I will!  
**

**emo1neko:OMG YOUR READING MY STORY? Hehe, thanks! :D**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokemon :p**

* * *

"….KHYYYROOOOHG…." a snore that even a Snorlax would be jealous of, blared out inside the dimly lit Pokecenter.

"Wah!" Hugh's eyes snapped wide open and he jolted up from his chair, breathing heavily. He gripped the arm rests tightly, as he tried to calm his racing heart. "I-I wasn't scared…" he whispered, saying that to no one in particular.

"Ugh…Who was that?" a young man groaned, rubbing his eyes to get rid of the drowsiness.

"My own mother doesn't snore that loud…" a woman complained.

"….KYOOOYOOFDGHOS…" the snort blasted out again, capturing the attention of the irritated people who had woken up. The people did a double take to make sure they weren't imagining things.

"KRRRRRRROOONNNGGGGGG…" a girl with blonde hair snored, making her small body tremble as she did. She snorted, which woke her up. She stared at the older people who gave her bewildered stares, and her face flushed with embarrassment. She scrambled out of the chair and ran outside the Pokecenter and into the dawn of the new day.

The people began muttering to one other, and began to roam around the Pokecenter to get ready for their journey.

"Tch. How the heck does a sound like that come out of a little girl?" Hugh said, cocking his head sideways to look at Mei, who had been quiet for some reason. Hugh was sure she would have been the first one to make a comment about the snoring.

Hugh blinked; the girl was doubled over in her chair, like she was going to throw up and was sleeping.

"How did you sleep through that? And what kind of sleeping position is that?" Hugh grumbled, scratching his head. Placing his hand on Mei's shoulder, he pulled her back, so that her back would be against the chair. Mei's head drooped, her hair falling in front of her face.

Hugh brushed back her hair and took a moment to stare at her face. A smile formed on Hugh's face as he realized that this was the perfect chance to try out the thing he always saw in those romance movies he watched in secret. He put his hand on top of Mei's head, and pushed her gently towards his shoulder.

He didn't know why he was doing this, but it felt right. Weight pushed onto his shoulder and his heart skipped a beat. Slowly, he turned his head to meet a face full of brown hair of those silly brown bagel-looking buns he always made fun of when they were younger. He sputtered and jerked backwards, making Mei fall into his chair in an uncomfortable position.

Hugh widened his eyes, his face turning a red color to match his eyes, as he realized what he had just attempted to got up from his chair quickly and stared at Mei in fear. This girl had strange effects on him!

Robotically, he approached Nurse Joy who was busily cleaning up supplies. He needed to spend some time away from Mei, maybe like figure out was going on with him for the last couple of years.

* * *

Mei woke up to numbness in her body. She groaned and squirmed, getting out of her twisted position on the sofa. Groggily, she stared into space, trying to remember why she was even in the Pokecenter and not in her house.

Nurse Joy noticed Mei waking up and scurried towards her. With a warm smile plastered on her face the pink-haired nurse asked," Did you have a good dream?"

Mei gawked at her, still drowsy with sleep." I… didn't have a dream…"

Nurse Joy's smile grew wider. "That means you slept well! A boy earlier told me to give this to you when you woke up." She reached into a pocket on her dress apron and took out a slip of paper. "Here," she said, holding it out.

Mei gazed at it blankly.

Nurse Joy fluttered the paper in the brunette's face for a couple more minutes, before giving up, realizing that the girl was still in a daze."You're not a morning person, are you? Well, I can help wake you up!" Nurse Joy dug around in her pocket again and took out a spray bottle. "Last chance to wake up!" the woman warned in a sing-song voice, holding the spray bottle in Mei's face.

"Huh?" Mei replied blankly, her eyes half lidded with sleep.

HYDRO PUMP! SPRAY BOTTLE EDITION! " Nurse Joy yelled, and pulled on the trigger. The nozzle sputtered and water sprayed out, splashing Mei for a critical hit.

Mei gasped, water dripping down her chin and stared up at the Nurse in shock.

Nurse Joy grinned and made a 'V' with her fingers. " Woke you up didn't I? Well here's the paper!" She dropped the it in the brunette's lap and wandered off.

"She sprayed water on me!" Mei sputtered, still stunned about what had happened. Gathering herself up again, she opened the slip of paper. In small blue ink handwriting, it read:

_ I left early for Aspertia to visit my family. The gym should be opening soon, so you should go challenge it._

_-Hugh_

Mei frowned; she could make out only the last two sentences from the scribbled filled paper. There was even a hole where Hugh crossed out something with too much force. But the most important was readable.

"I'll go back to Aspertia!" she said, getting up and walking towards the door. "HUK!" She stopped in her tracks, staring at her messy-haired and wild-eyed reflection in the windows. _I should probably go fix myself up first_, Mei thought, rushing to the bathroom.

* * *

Mei froze from the distance. It was that tall cliff with a couple trees on it where she encountered Alder! Cautiously, she stepped closer to it, surveying the area for any signs of the red-headed monster. Green grass, brown and green trees, there wasn't any sign of red.

"Silly me for thinking that the red-headed monster would be here," Mei said, laughing loudly.

"HELLO CHILD!"

_Oh no… That wouldn't be…_Mei looked up to see a tree's leaves rustle. Alder's face popped out from the leaves with a huge smile from ear to ear.

"IT IS!" the brunette shrieked, finishing her thoughts.

With a laugh, Alder pulled himself out of the tree, and sat on the branch like he was meditating. Suddenly, he launched off into the air, heading straight for Mei.

"YOOODOOLAHHEHOOO!" he screamed like a madman, flailing his arms out as he sliced through the , Mei screamed at the top of her lungs and willed herself to move, running as fast as she could back to Aspertia.

Alder landed on the ground. He snorted and burst out in laughter as he watched the girl run. He curled up into a ball because her laughed so hard his stomach began hurting.

* * *

Mei stepped inside the Trainer School, a cool breeze greeting her as she stepped inside. It had taken her sometime to find out where the gym was. She had to ask a couple people about where the gym was. She was hesitant to believe that it was inside the trainer school, and kept asking again to make sure people weren't trolling her. Eventually, a boy outside pushed her in and slammed the door on her.

"That boy was rude…" she muttered, rubbing the arm the boy had shoved, and glanced around to make sure Alder wasn't there. Kids were bustling about, talking to each other by the lockers or sitting in those annoying desks where the chair is connected to the desk, so you had to get up to pick stuff up when you dropped something. A huge chalkboard with stuff scribbled on it was in the front of the room. The red-headed monster didn't seem to be there.

Mei sighed in relief and continued to walk down a hall that led to a door. Next to the door were two stone statues of a Pokeball with lightening going through them.

"I'm coming for you!" Mei yelled and pushed open the door, the warm summer breeze blowing on her face. The sun shone down on a grainy battlefield, where two males were talking.

The younger of the two, noticed Mei coming in first. He had a strange hairstyle, where part of his black hair sprung up like an antenna. He wore a dress shirt and blue skinny jeans (which fit him quite nicely, Mei noted). By the looks of it, he seemed about a couple years older than Mei. Loosening his tie he spoke up in a serious voice. "Hello. Are you a challenger?"

"Yes sir!" Mei replied, feeling it was necessary to be formal with him.

The older man turned around. He was tall with tan skin that made his short platinum hair pop out. He wore a pair of sunglasses that Mei could see her reflection in." Yo! I'm Clyde, the Gym Guide. Here!" He tossed Mei a bottle of water.

"Well, challenger, I'm Cheren, the new Gym Leader of Aspertia. Who are you?" Cheren asked, shooing away Clyde with his hands. Clyde nodded and took a few steps back to the door.

"I'm Mei!"

"Alright Mei. You ready?" Cheren said, and tossed a Pokeball into the air. In a flash of red light, a Patrat landed on the ground, staring at Mei with its multicolored eyes.

_I should throw Snivy's Pokeball at that Patrat… Then I could do some extra damage before this battle starts! _Mei smirked at her thoughts, and grasped Snivy's Pokeball. She eyed the Patrat in concentration, aiming for its eye. She drew back her arm and flung the Pokeball.

The Pokeball sailed through the air, and Snivy popped out, landing directly across from the Patrat.

"No!" Mei shouted, pulling on her ponytails. She was so close!

Cheren gave her a strange look for her sudden outburst." The battle hasn't started yet."

"O-Oh yeah!" Mei nodded at her Snivy. " Vine Whip!"

"Patrat, Bite!"

Snivy dashed towards the Patrat, her vines out and ready. Being the faster one out of the two, her vines swung out, smacking the Patrat on the head before it had a chance to attack. Wincing, the Patrat ducked, avoiding the next Vine Whip, and opened its mouth, showing off its buck teeth. It clamped down on Snivy's leg, who cried out in pain. The grass snake crumbled onto the ground with Patrat latched onto her leg.

"YARGH! Snivy, Vine Whip that biter off!"

"Detect!" Cheren countered.

The Patrat released Snivy's leg, and stepped back quickly to dodge a blow from a Vine Whip. It was like a strange dance; Snivy lashing out with her vines and Patrat nimbly moving in all directions, dodging the attacks.

"This Patrat is like a… like an UBER!" Mei yelled out, mystified by the Patrat's swift movements.

Cheren pinched his nose, stupefied by Mei's lack of knowledge of pokemon moves. He was battling against an amateur- no, not even an amateur. This girl was worse than an amateur. "Alright Patrat…Let's end this quickly. Work Up!"

_Work Up?! That sounds like a terrifying move._ Mei thought, slightly panicking. " S-Snivy! Brace yourself!"

"_Snniv!"_ Snivy trilled, watching the Patrat intensely for any sudden movements.

Patrat raised its arms and pranced around, spinning in circles.

"Here it comes!" Mei screeched.

"_Tatatat!"_ it squealed, a red aura starting to materialize around it. A couple seconds went by, and the red aura disappeared. Seeing that it wasn't attacking,

Mei smiled smugly."HAH! That move did NOTHING! Let's TACKLE!"

"What an idiot…" Cheren muttered. "Tackle as well, Patrat."

The two pokemon started running, building up momentum for their attack. Snivy ran into Patrat who slammed its body into Snivy, flinging her backwards. The grass snake cried out as her body slide on the ground, kicking up a dust cloud behind her. Snivy grimaced, struggling to get up, only to be tackled into again by Patrat.

Snivy let out a cry as she skidded across the dirt ground. _"Sniiivy!" s_he cursed at the Patrat( who let out a gasp in response) and her head fell limply on the ground.

Mei widened her eyes, approaching her Pokemon."S-Snivy?" she croaked out like a lost child calling for their mom. She bent down to her unconscious pokemon."Snivy. Wake up?"

The grass snake stirred and opened her red eyes wearily.

"HALLUGAH! SHE'S ALIVE!" Mei cheered, twirling around with her Pokemon. Cheren coughed loudly, catching her attention.

"Are you sick?" Mei asked.

The Gym Leader ignored her. "Can I be honest with you?" The younger girl nodded her head.

Cheren fixed her with a stern stare." You aren't ready to be a trainer. I suggest you educate yourself more before you battle me again."

"H-Huh?"


	6. Cheren Versus Spit

**TheOneMagic: :D**

**Gemstone Gal: Thank you! Hopefully she will xD!**

**Gembell:Thank you!**

**emo1neko: You're too kind! Thanks!**

**FireDragonX23:haha xD**

**Sakai Kamichi: LOL. Alder being the new Slendy...scary**

**Ashleychanx: :D**

**Stupidity at its Limit: Why, thank you!**

**PandaKimchi:True dat!**

* * *

_I'm not ready to be a trainer? Now...why would Cheren say something like that?_ Mei thought. Conclusions popped up inside her head and she pushed them away if they didn't make sense. _Keeping thinking Mei. There's got to be a reason why!_

"Cheren!" Clyde called out from the sidelines while Mei was zoning out with over thinking. " She's just a beginner! Don't be so harsh!"

Cheren held out his index finger, signalling the gym guide to be quiet. "Let me explain, Clyde. She didn't know the moves I used, she didn't know what fainting was-"

"Wait…I see now! You're giving up!" Mei blurted out after pulling together her thoughts. She nodded her head in admiration of her skills of finding out true meanings of what people say.

The Gym Leaded furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Huh? Where did you get that idea?"

"Since, you were like, we should stop battling because your Snivy died and came back to life!"

"Your Snivy didn't die and come back to life, it fainted! You have to go to the Pokecenter now to heal it! Were you even listening to what I saying a couple seconds ago?"

"So she didn't die and come back to life..." Mei sighed in relief as she looked down at Snivy, who was sleeping in her arms."And no... I was thinking," she admitted.

Cheren pulled his lips into a thin line and gave the girl a disapproving look."You might even more ditsier than Bianca..." he muttered under his breath." Anyways, if you don't know what fainting is when you're starting out as a trainer... That's a bad start. You need to get more experience about Pokemon and battling before you start your journey!"

_I think...I know why he's saying this now._ With a nod, Mei thanked Cheren for his advice and quickly made her way over to the door. She paused before flinging them open to yell," I want a rematch after this!"

* * *

"Come back again!" Nurse Joy called, as the sliding doors closed behind Mei.

_Cheren must have a phobia of Mareeps, _Mei thought, leaning against the building of the Pokecenter. _He stopped the battle right before I was about to send Fluffy out._ _But then... How did he know I have Fluffy if he'd never seen him yet?_ _Unless..._

"He's stalking me," Mei gasped, feeling her blood run cold. That would explain why he knew about her Mareep! "But it's so creepy…"A chill went up her spine. It almost felt like someone was watching her...

"W-What? I-I'm not stalking you!" a voice suddenly said.

Mei yelped and stumbled backwards from shock. She steadied herself by putting a hand on the Pokecenter's window. Taking a deep breath, she looked up to see Hugh…and the little demon (who was snickering) standing in front of her.

"O-Oh… Hi," she said dryly, sending a glare in the little demon's direction.

Hugh lifted up a shaky hand as a greeting and stuffed them in the pocket of his pants." D-Don't get the wrong idea, I'm not stalking you!"

"Stalking me?" she repeated.

"We know big bwother. Why would anyone want to look at big swister?" the little demon chirped in a sweet voice.

"Yeah," Hugh said immediately, because of the little demon's tone. Processing what the little demon said, he let his jaw drop and stared at it in shock.

_Yes. YES! YES!_ Mei cheered silently, seeing the flash of panic on the little demon's face. The little demon was going to get caught! Now she just had to edge Hugh on." Oh my…That was quite rude! I'm hurt by that comment."

Hugh squatted down to be eye level with the little demon."You shouldn't say things like that, okay?"

Mei huffed loudly in exasperation, which made her bangs fly upwards. _That…That wasn't what I wanted at all! Hugh, you're too nice to that thing!_

The little demon shot Mei a quick smirk before blinking up at Hugh with innocent brown eyes."Okay, big bwother..." It begain to fiddle with its fingers as it shuffled its feet around cutely." You should go do the shopping that Mommy wanted us to do."

Hugh sighed in annoyance at the memory of his promise. "Oh yeah… But I need to ask Mei if she beat the gym yet."

"I haven't… But that stalker is gonna get a piece of me!" Mei declared._ And I need to quickly, so I can get away from the little demon!_

"Stalker?!" Hugh repeated, his red eyes glinting with concern." Tell me who's stalking you! I'll go beat that jerk up!" He got up and rolled up his sleeves, ready to storm off when the brunette told him who.

"Aww… Big bwother likes big swister!" the little demon sang, clasping her hands together and putting on a dreamy expression on her face.

Hugh froze for a second before whipping his head towards the little demon. "I-I d-don't like her!" he stuttered, his cheeks flushing a dark red. He gave Mei a quick glance before darting off into the Pokecenter.

"Hear that? He doesn't like you," the little demon sneered, after Hugh was inside the building and couldn't hear them.

"He doesn't like me…?" Mei repeated slowly, her heart suddenly feeling heavy. She then remembered who she was talking to and shook her head."LIES, YOU MANIPULATIVE DEMON," she roared, "Hugh probably said that to trick you!"

"Dimwitted idiot," the little demon muttered and smirked." Did you like my Town Maps?"

"Well. Yes, yes I did! They sure came in handy!"

The little demon frowned for a moment, before its lips curled upwards into a smirk." I don't care about how it was handy, but I'm sure you wasted your time thinking they were explosive devices…Retard."

Mei wrinkled her nose and crossed her arms. There was no way she was going to admit she did that." Oh…But you're wrong!" she lied.

"Am I?"

"Yeah! Y-You…Y-you… wingless chicken demon!"

A perplexed look appeared on the little demon's face." What? You make no sense, stupid nincompoop."

"You make no sense, you stupid nincompoop!" Mei retorted. She whirled around and sprinted off before the little demon could say something else.

* * *

Mei's heart started beating quickly as she approached the door that lead to where Cheren was. She was going to confront her stalker. "Breathe, Mei," she whispered and inhaled sharply, relaxing her body. "Just beat him and tell him to stop stalking you. Use Fluffy against his phobia." With that said, she pushed opened the door.

Cheren was on the ground, petting his pokemon. At the sound of the door closing, his head shot up and narrowed his eyes at Mei. "You did not just learn about pokemon and battling that quickly. I just finished up healing my pokemon!"

"L-let's just say I'm a fast learner...and can learn on the go?" Mei's voice was trembling. She took a deep breath. _Just because he's stalking me, doesn't mean he's scary. And besides, you have his worst fear with you. FLUFFY!_

Cheren stared at her for a moment before sighing. " You can learn more while battling. Alright then. Let's have our rematch."

"Let's end this quickly!" Mei yelled, holding Snivy's Pokeball in her hand.

The Gym Leader nodded and got up from his chair." I hope you will learn a thing or two during our rematch…" he said, and nodded to Patrat, who chattered in response and scampered to the middle of the field.

_I'll use Fluffy at the end, since he thinks I'm going to use him first! I'm so unpredictable! _"Snivy wants a word with your Patrat!" Mei yelled, chucking the Pokeball into the air. The grass snake landed on the ground and hissed at the sight of the pokemon that her knocked her out before. In a blink of an eye, she was next to the Patrat, giving it a good slap with her tail.

Mei grinned, motivated by her Pokemon's aggression. "Good job Snivy! Vine Whip!"

"Attacking before we even started…" Cheren grumbled. "Bite, Patrat!"

Vines drew out of the grass snake. Snivy grunted and spun around, smacking Patrat multiple times in each rotation. Being slower, Patrat could only sneak in a few thrusts of its claws at the grass snake. Snivy gave the Patrat a final hit and watched it tumbled backwards onto the ground unconscious. The grass snake smirked in her achievement and spat out a generous glob of spit at the Pokemon.

"Hey! Tell your Snivy not to do that! That was rude and _disgusting_!" Cheren revolted as he returned his Patrat back to its ball.

"Don't do that Snivy," she said half-heartily,not really caring since they had taken down one of Cheren's Pokemon. That meant they were that much closer to VICTORY!

"It better not! ESPECIALLY ON ME!" Cheren shrieked (quite uncharacteristically), with a wild-eyed glare.

"Whoa…What's his problem?" Mei said out loud. Snivy stared at the boy, a knowing glint in her eye.

"N-Nothing is wrong with me!" Chren shouted and tossed out a Pokeball.

" Yarpp!" Lillipup barked, as it jumped down onto the battlefield, landing a couple meters away from Snivy.

Mei scowled at the sight of Cheren's Pokemon. Back when she always stayed home, an elderly lady and her LOUD yapping Lillipup walked by their house every day. She wasn't too fond of those creatures.

"Lillipup, Work Up!"

Mei pointed towards the prancing dog." Snivy, quick! Run up to it and SMACK it before it unleashes the power!"

Snivy darted towards the puppy Pokemon. Upon reaching the Lillipup, she raised her vines behind her readying for a good blow. Before Snivy had the chance to attack, the Lillipup suddenly slammed its body against hers.

_THUD._

"Oh no Snivy!" Mei cried out as she watched her pokemon crash into the ground. Snivy slowly rose up and scowled at the opposing Pokemon._  
_

Mei smiled at her Pokemon determined hisses. They were going to win this battle! She would not lose to an annoying, barking, Pokemon!

"Tackle!" Cheren yelled.

Lillipup stood its ground with the next Vine Whip. It growled and rammed into Snivy when an opening appeared, flinging the grass snake into the air. Snivy pounded against the ground and let out a groan. She grimaced with pain and then closed her eyes, admitting her defeat.

"Aww… Good job," Mei murmured, recalling her Pokemon. "Stare in fear at FLUFFFFYY!" Mei threw his Pokeball high in the air and Fluffy landed on the ground beside her in a flash of light. _Time to use his phobia against him!_

"_Eeep!"_ the Mareep bleated and let out a scoff at the sight of Lillipup.

"I can see you are trembling in fear! That tells you not to stalk anyone!" Mei proclaimed.

Cheren glanced at Clyde to see if he had anyone clue of what she was saying. The man shrugged and the black-haired Gym Leader turned back around. "I won't even ask. Anyways, Lillipup, Tackle!

Mei watched nervously as the Lillipup began to scamper towards the Mareep. Before Fluffy could charge towards the Pokemon, the Lillipup tackled into his woolly body, knocking him down on his back. Lillipup yelped as its fur sparked up. Cheren gritted his teeth." Your Mareep's ability Static activated. What a pain. But we can still move!"

Lillipup nodded its shaggy head, and trudged towards Fluffy, its speed severely hampered by paralysis.

"Come on Fluffy! Get up and Tackle it!" Mei shouted, feeling confident in their win, now that the opponent's Pokemon was slowed.

"_Reeeeep!"_ Fluffy cried out in a strained voice. He rolled around on his back pathetically, his stump legs flailing around uselessly in the air.

He was stuck on his back.

Cheren stifled back a laugh." PFFT… Y-Your…Mareep-" he let out a snort and quickly covered his mouth with his hand, trying to regain his composed look.

"Ack… Fluffy…" Mei said, pulling on her ponytails nervously. _Christoph told me to always help my friends in their time of need…_ Mei thought, releasing her hair." Let's go Fluffy! I believe in you! You can do it!" she cheered.

Lillipup reached Fluffy and tackled into him again. Fluffy rolled around on the ground, until he stopped in front of Mei, unconscious.

"Well. Cheren won!" Clyde, the Gym guide said.

"T-That soon?!" Mei gasped and ran over to Fluffy. The Mareep let out a weak bleat before laying its head against the dirt. Mei's shoulder slumped as she recalled Fluffy._ I lost again… Maybe I really am unfit for a trainer…_

Cheren's black dress shoes appeared in her sight. She lifted her head up, until she made eye contact with Cheren's dark blue eyes.

Cheren loosened his red tie and cleared his throat. "Don't look so dejected. I could see you really improved. Just train your Pokemon a bit and you'll be able to beat me next time." he quoted from the Gym Leader book he had to read before becoming one. There were a lot of speeches and things he had to memorized.

Mei nodded and turned around, about to walk off, until Snivy popped out of her ball. The grass snake's eyes were half-lidded with exhaustion as she trudged towards the Gym Leader's shoes. She held her head back.

Cheren blinked in confusion."What's your Snivy doing?"

A gurgling sound came from Snivy's throat.

"Oh no… Your Snivy isn't going to-? I-I have a phobia of spit from other things! Return your Snivy!" Cheren demanded, taking a step back and fumbling with the tie around his neck.

Mei's face brightened. "Oh…You have a phobia of spit? I thought you had a phobia of Mareeps! That makes a lot more sense…"

"_Svvvv!"_ Snivy grumbled, taking a step closer to the boy's feet.

The raven-haired trainer eyed the Snivy cautiously. "Return it right now! I mean it!"

"_Snivvvvv!"_

Cheren glowered at the brunette."Y-You… This is blackmail, isn't it?"

Mei tilted her head to the side." Blackmail? I think Snivy is blackmailing you."

Cheren glared at her and forced a calm expression on his face." Well, I'll have you know I won't fall into such dirty tactics."

Snivy spat out a glob of spit onto the ground by the young Gym leader's feet. Cheren shrieked loudly and scooted backwards from the substance on the ground. He cleared his throat, but despite that, he spoke in a trembling voice." F-Fine, I-I'll g-give you the badge!" He reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a small rectangular object. With shivering hands, he tossed it towards Mei, along with a disk.

"T-That's t-the Basic Badge and that's TM Work U-Up! Now get out with all your filth!" he shouted, retreating to where Clyde was.

"Thank you?" Mei said confusedly and headed towards the door. She had her first Gym Badge in her hand! But she didn't feel like she actually won it._ Well… It is only the first badge…So I guess it doesn't matter. Unless… _Mei widened her eyes. T_hey install hidden cameras in each gym and keep track of the trainers! No... People don't get arrested for things like this… Hopefully._

* * *

She leaned against the wall of the Trainer School, still lost in her thoughts, after returning Snivy into her ball. Suddenly, the Pokeball broke open and the grass snake came out, trilling energetically, despite her tired expression. She ran to a pair of red sneakers and nudged them with her head

_Only one person could make Snivy so happy…_ " Hugh! Guess what… I GOT THE BADGE!" Mei yelled, looking up and holding out the rectangular metal object._ With the help of Snivy blackmailing, of course._

Hugh shook his leg in an effort to get the Pokemon off." T-That's great. Could you, um. Recall Snivy?" Mei nodded and returned her Pokemon.

"Thanks. I'm going to go…challenge him too. But I was thinking that… you…could…you…wa…..it…" The boy's voice trailed off as he stared into Mei's blue eyes.

The brunette blinked at him. "If I could what?"

He sighed and faced away from her."Never mind…"

"Okay then. See you later!"

Hugh turned his head over his shoulder, looking at Mei from the corner of his eye. He watched her brown hair disappear from behind the door and stared at the place where she had been for awhile, a half-hearted smile on his face. "Hah…" he murmured, running a hand through his blue hair. "I couldn't even ask her to wait for me… Well whatever. It's not like I want to stick around her or that she could possibly kill herself."

Hugh stopped. " If she somehow managed to trip on nothing when she was getting a Pokemon, then she'll somehow manage to kill herself. I better hurry." The boy ran off towards where Cheren was.

* * *

**Well, I'm aiming to break some of the stereotypes of journey fics! Mei will lose some battles and win some. And she's very uneducated in battling ( the reason will be revealed later on~)**


	7. Curtis the Gum Scraper

**I'm so sorry for not updating sooner! My cousins were over and I had to go places :(. So as an apology, here's a chapter chock full of stuff.**

**Gemstone Gal: That should be a move, don't you think? **

**Sakai Kamichi: She OWNS Wikipedia :D Naw JK, that would be terrifying then D:**

**FireDragonX23: :D**

**ThePeacockFeather: Haha, thank you! I'm really happy to hear that :D**

**Geekachu:xD**

**Meemeeru: Thank you! **

**Guest:I will try my best :)**

**Jasmine831:I'm glad you do! Haha xD**

**emo1neko:Aww thanks!**

* * *

Mei laughed as her newly caught Dunsparce wiggled around in her arms. "I think...I'm going to call you Dumdum!"

Dumdum stopped moving and stared at his trainer, not very pleased about his new name.

"D'awww...Aren't you cute?" Mei squealed, hugging Dumdum closer to her chest. After battling multiple trainers on Route 20, she had caught her first pokemon (since Hugh gave her Fluffy, the Mareep didn't really count) with a flick of a Pokeball. She didn't even have to send out one of her tired pokemon to weaken Dumdum!

Mei walked inside the gate connecting Virbank City and Route 20. She stopped a couple feet away from the exit of the gateway, just far enough so she couldn't see what was at the other end.

Last time Mei had been in Virbank City was when she was eight, a couple months before news of her dad passing away reached her. Her mother had taken her to Pokestar to watch one of the plays the local people would put on. That had been the last time she'd been there.

During the time of her secluding herself at home, she spent most of her time watching television. She watched commercials about a new entertainment building; Pokestar Studios. The old and small Pokestar was taken down and was soon replaced with a massive, exquisite and extravagant building, filled with lights and fancy screens. Her initial shock was soon replaced with sadness, since the small theatre held so many memories for her.

Just like Pokestar, Virbank City must have changed over the years. She remembered the area as a suburban town, just like Aspertia. A couple houses, a bright sky, and trees scattered about.

_"Dunn!"_ Dumdum screeched impatiently, squirming around in his trainer's arms. He did not like it when things wasted his time. Mei laughed and recalled him back into his Pokeball and made her way out the gate.

* * *

"GAH. It SMELLS here!" Mei blurted, pinching her nose in an attempt to block the stench of fumes and trash. The smell became weaker and Mei took a moment to gaze around Virbank for the first time in six year.

What she saw and heard surprised her.

Smoke rose up from buildings and wrapped around the sky, hiding the brilliant blue behind a sheet of grayish haze. The streets and neighborhoods were dull and gray, littered with trash. It was nothing like what she remembered from her childhood.

What surprised her most was the scene a couple feet in front of her. A girl with shockingly white hair tied upwards into a style that resembled a pineapple was arguing with a man with brown hair tied into a ponytail. She could hear them yelling, but she couldn't make out the words. It was unusual for people to argue outside in the open, where everyone could hear them. They must have been really cross with each other.

Curiosity getting the best of her, Mei took a couple steps closer to hear them better. She froze when she heard a horrifying sound form beneath her.

_Splat._

"Oh no. That wasn't a Sewaddle was it?" she squeaked, turning her head over her shoulder to check. She tried to lift her foot, but it stayed glued to the ground. Gritting her teeth, she put all her energy in her leg and pulled upwards. With a snapping sound, her foot was released from the ground. Mei grinned at her accomplishment and glanced at the heel of her shoe.

A fresh pink glob of soft, sticky, sweet, wet substance was stuck on there. Gum.

"GROSS!" Mei shrieked, hopping around on one foot so she wouldn't get her shoe stuck on the street again.

"Here, let me help you," a boy that looked about her age suddenly said. The brunette stopped bouncing around and stared at him. He had light lime green that sprung out of his cap, which was the same dark green as his shirt. The boy had a pale complexion with sparkling green eyes. A little mole was near his chin.

"Well, okay. Thanks." Mei said and watched the boy bend down. "Hey! Don't try and steal my shoes!" she warned as the boy slipped them off.

"Don't worry! I won't steal them."

Mei stared down at the boy scraping her shoe with a piece of paper. Something about him was awfully familiar. _His voice... It sounds exactly like Christoph! And he has a mole right where Christoph does… Could he be him in disguise? But there's no way that would be possible. Oh me, that's the strangest idea ever! _

She looked up and noticed the man and girl from before weren't there. How disappointing. And she really wanted to know why they were yelling._ It wasn't my business anyways._ Mei thought to herself, trying to shrug off the disappointed feeling inside her.

"_Ring, ring, ring."_

Mei flinched at the sound of her Xtransceiver blaring out. She brought the device closer to her and checked the caller and smiled, proceeding to press the answer button.

"Hey Hug-"

"Where the heck are you?!" Hugh interrupted loudly, glaring at the girl.

Mei widened her eyes at his tone; why did her friend seem so…ticked off? "I'm at Virbank City,"

The boy's face visibly softened and he turned his head away from the camera. "Sorry," he said quietly after a moment of silence "Just…stay there until I get there."

"I'm not sure why you're sorry, but it's okay! See you later!"

"Whew! I'm done!"

Mei looked down. The green-haired boy smiled back and slipped her shoe back on.

" Mei..." Hugh said suddenly, an edgy tone to his voice." Who is that?"

The brunette turned her head to the Xtransiver and blinked in surprise." You're still here Hugh?"

"Of course I am! We didn't hang up yet! Now who is that?!"

Mei angled the device so Hugh could get a better look at the boy. "Well, this is... I don't know actually."

Smiling, the boy replied," I'm Curtis! Nice to meet you… it's Hugh, right?"

Hugh stared at Curtis, his crimson eyes slowly narrowing down into a glare. Then his side of the screen went blank.

"Eh?" Mei raised her eyebrows."Hugh? You there Hugh? Hugh? Hello?"

"I think he hung up." Curtis said quietly, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Anyways, your name is…Mei I assume? It's a pretty name."

"Why thank you! And you're Curtis?"

The boy nodded." So why are you here? Going to Pokestar to watch a movie?"

"No it's not that...I'm here to..."_Now that I think about it… Why AM I here?_ "A-actually. I don't know why I'm here."

Curtis raised an eyebrow, "So you just wandered in here by yourself? That's pretty dangerous, considering how shady some parts of this city are."

"I didn't wander in here by myself. I have pokemon with me!"

"Oh so you're a trainer?" Curtis asked, receiving a nod from the brunette. "...and you don't know why you came in here?" The girl nodded again.

The boy laughed. "You're pretty strange. There's a Pokemon Gym here, so you could challenge that."

Mei widened her eyes. "There's a Pokemon Gym here!?"

Curtis laughed again. "You didn't know? If you go south a little, it's there. It's a Poison-Type gym with a girl named Roxie as the Gym Leader. Curtis glanced at his watch and sighed. "I'm going to be late for work. Maybe I'll see you around !" With that said, the boy ran off.

Mei watched him run into a large crowd of people and disappear. She realized that he had went into Pokestar Studios, because of the large sign that screamed out ' Pokestar Studios' in bright flashing letters above the gate that the people were heading into." He's probably a janitor there," Mei assumed. She felt bad for him, seeing how he looked about her age and had a job that involved cleaning up after people's crap.

_My prayers will go to you Curtis the janitor boy._ Mei thought, walking towards the Pokemon Center to heal up her Pokemon, before going on to challenge the Gym.

* * *

Mei walked through the streets, her head down to watch for any nasty pieces of gum on the ground. She sighed as she stepped over a pink glob stuck on the concrete. Seriously, did the people who lived here know what a trash can was?

_If I keep walking like this, I wouldn't know if I passed the gym!_ Mei realized and stopped in a clear spot with no gum around her. She looked up and glanced at each one of the buildings. They were aged, made out of gray stone with stains on it. Each house had a purple roof above it, and she noticed that every single building she could see was made exactly the same. The gym probably wasn't here.

Mei sighed, realizing she would have to go through the gum infested road again. She hopped and stumbled and stepped over the disgusting globs of rubber and spit. She took a moment to stop in the middle of a bridge to peer over it. Surprisingly, clean water flowed under with various Pokemon swimming around in it. She smiled, relived to find out something had not changed about the city.

After a couple minutes of staring, she forced herself away and continued her trek through the gum filled streets. She passed by more buildings and a narrow building with a flickering light above it. Curiosity getting the better of her, she went inside it.

Muffled music boomed from below the stair case. "This is a bar isn't it?" she mused and turned around to leave. Bars were not her cup of tea. And she was a minor.

* * *

"Where in the name of television is this Gym?!" Mei groaned, pulling her ponytails in frustration. She had been walking through the streets, stressfully avoiding the gum to look for it.

"Are you a trainer?" a voice called out from behind her.

"Yes I am!" Mei answered, turning around. Her insides melted with pity. A man crouched down in the shadow of a trash can, his knees hunched up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. A depressing atmosphere hung around him.

_This poor hobo… I should give him something. _Mei thought and dug around in her bag, bringing out the water that Clyde had given hair. She approached the man, bending down to be eyelevel with him. His blue eyes were bloodshot and his face was stained with dried tear marks. It was obvious he had been crying earlier.

" , here you go," Mei whispered, placing the water bottle in front of him. The man blinked at her and bunched up his eyebrows together in confusion. The brunette smiled and gently nudged the bottle closer to him. "This is for you . I hope you'll get a better home than a trash can one day."

"Hobo?" the man croaked, shifting his head to reveal his disheveled brown hair from the shadows. "I'm not a hobo."

"Hey…you're that guy from earlier!" Mei exclaimed, staring at his brown hair.

"Do I know you?"

"No, I just saw you arguing with a girl earlier! I was about to eavesdrop but then the scoundrel gum stopped me!"

The man sighed and hugged his knees tighter to his chest." Oh yes… I was arguing with my daughter about that I was going to start a career in acting." He hesitated before talking again." She told me that I should just worry about my sailor job and not do something else. I should have listened to her…"

"Why?"

"BECAUSE I FAILED MY FIRST MOVIE!" The man wailed, making Mei flinch from his sudden change in loudness. "Most people went to that Christoph's guy movie and the few people that came to mine LEFT in the middle of it! THOSE JERKS! MY ACTING WASN'T THAT BAD!"

Mei widened her eyes and stared at the man." Could you repeat that?"

The man sniffled and nodded." Most people went to a movie featuring Christoph, and-"

"CHRISTOPH?!" Mei interrupted, sticking her face in the man's face. " Christoph? The guy with green hair?!"

The man scooted backwards away from her, to retrieve the personal space he had lost. " Y-yes. He just filmed it so it's the brand new release of his movie. And later he's going to be actually leaving the studio, so a lot of people came to see him…"

"H-he is?"

"Yes."

"He really, truly is?"

"…Yes."

"Are you sure that he's really, truly,_ surely _leaving the studio?"

"…Yes."

"Are-"

"He's leaving the studio for SURE, okay miss? Everyone inside was talking about it!" the man snapped.

A wide grin broke out on Mei's face and her eyes instantly brightened. She laughed and got up, turning around to skip off to Pokestar Studio.

"A-ah wait!" the man called after her.

Mei spun around." Yes?"

The man got up and wobbled towards her. "Would you mind challenging my daughter and tell her I gave up on my career?"

"Your daughter?" Mei repeated.

The man nodded and held his head low. "Roxie is my daughter. She would be rather… um… s-scary sometimes." He brought his head up and smiled weakly at the brunette." So could you? She would be much nicer if someone else told her. It gives her some time to cool down before confronting me. You're taking on the gym anyways, so it would be a win-win for both of us."

Mei bit her lower lip thoughtfully._ If I help this guy… I would miss seeing Christoph. And that's a once in a lifetime chance! _"I'll help you later," Mei replied after a couple seconds of silence. The man looked crestfallen. "I can't miss this chance to see Christoph!" she explained, placing a hand on the man's shoulder.

The man perked up."Christoph is leaving in an hour! You could beat Roxie first and then go to see him!"

"Oh," Mei said, scratching the back of her head." Okay then sir. Could you tell me where the Gym is?"

* * *

"This was a Gym?" Mei muttered, going down the stairs of the building she was previously in. With each step down she took, the rock music grew louder. Finally she reached the bottom, and a man that looked exactly like Clyde stood at the bottom.

"Hey, are you Clyde?" Mei asked.

"WHAT?! I'm Clyde! This is the Poison-Type gym! Now hurry up and enter!" the man screamed over the booming of the music. With one hand clamped over an ear, he used his free hand to pull open a white door for Mei and closed it right away as she entered.

The room was mostly black with a giant picture of a Koffing in the front of the room. Below the Koffing, was the girl from before with the white pineapple hair (Roxie) and her band members. Stereos were around them, blasting the music they were making. Which was pretty bad in Mei's opnion, since the only lyrics seemed to be spelling out and singing the word 'pokemon'.

Mei made her way down some steps and swerved around chairs and bumped into dancing people. She was glad the music was so loud, that it blocked out some of the cuss words thrown at her. She made her way up the steps and to the stage, where Roxie and her band mates were.

She approached the white-haired girl and tapped her shoulder. Roxie was too busy jamming out on her guitar and singing some rather simple lyrics into a microphone to notice her.

Mei frowned and quickly snatched the microphone away from the girl. Roxie sang another note before stopping and realizing that her voice wasno longer blasting out into the room. She raised a hand to signal her band mates to stop the whole room was quiet, except from the murmurs of the crowd below them.

"Doo doo doo," Mei whispered into the mic and giggled as her voice came out of the speakers in a loud, clear voice.

Finally Roxie spoke up." Are you here to challenge me?"

Mei cleared her voice before replying," Yup!" into the microphone.

The Gym Leader grabbed the microphone from her. "You know you're supposed to battle my band mates before challenging me?" she said, putting her hands on her hip and glaring at the brunette. The drummer and guitarist nodded in agreement.

"Oops." Mei replied."But I have news from your father!"

Roxie cocked an eyebrow. " My father?" She sighed and crossed her arms. "That coward tells a random kid to tell me stuff. Well okay. What'd he say?"

"Nope! You have to battle me first to find out!" Mei exclaimed, taking out Dumdum's Pokeball.

Roxie gave her an annoyed look before sighing again. "Fine. Two on two, kay?"

"Kay! Go Dumdum!"

"Koffing!"

The two Pokemon emerged from their Pokeballs. Roxie snorted at the Dunsparce fluttering his tiny wings. "Who the heck uses a Dunsparce in a battle?" The crowd burst out in laughter at her comment.

"_Duun!"_ Dumdum squealed, angrily thumping his tails against the ground. He was quite offended by that statement.

Mei rolled her eyes. "Psh. Dumdum they don't realize your greatness! Hit that purple thing with a Yawn!"

Dumdum opened his mouth and let out a loud yawn, and bubbles floated out. The Koffing stared as the bubbles slowly moved towards it and simply floated upwards to avoid them.

"PATHETIC!" someone yelled from the crowd, and they exploded into laughter again.

Mei frowned."Dumdum, they're just jealous of your awesomeness!"

"Right. Awesomeness. Koffing, let's show that fool REAL awesomeness!" Roxie shouted. The Koffing charged towards the Dunsparce and tackled into him, making him tumble backwards. Suddenly, bubbles popped in the Koffing's face, making its eyes droop.

"What the?!" Roxie yelled, as her Koffing fell down onto the ground, snoring.

"Dumdum used Yawn when your Koffing tackled into him!" Mei explained, smiling. She recalled her Pokemon and threw out another one. Snivy popped out and landed on the ground.

Roxie rolled her eyes. "A grass type? Do you know anything about type advantages?"

"Nope! Grass types are super effective against poison types, right?" Mei frowned when she heard people from the audience snicker.

"It's the other way around doofus!" Roxie replied, face palming. "You're not very good with the basic of battling, are you?"

Mei opened her mouth into an 'o' shape. She looked down at Snivy, who gave her a bored look.

_That's not a very reassuring expression. What if we lose again? And Cheren told me something similar like that too..._ Mei thought to herself nervously, glancing down to her Pokemon, Roxie, and the people whose stares bored through her.

Vines drew from the grass snake and reached out towards the sleeping Koffing. They wrapped around its purple body and Snivy let out a grunt as she heaved the Pokemon upwards with her vines.

Mei watched with baited breath and the vines went downwards with the Koffing and slammed against the stage. The vines rose up with the poison gas pokemon again and came down again.

"H-hey! " Roxie yelled out, alarmed. "Koffing wake up and use Smog!" She strummed a couple notes on her guitar, making music to snap her pokemon awake.

The Koffing fluttered its eye open and groaned at the sudden pain in its body. Snivy hissed as the Pokemon in her vines began struggling around. Finally, it gave up and spewed out a gray smoke from its mouth. The gray smoke enclosed around them, completely blocking Mei's and Snivy's sight.

"Hey! Smoke bombs are cheating!" Mei called out, trying to fan away the smoke by waving around her hand.

" It's a Pokemon move, you doofus! Now Tackle, Koffing!"

Snivy grunted from the smog entering her body. She felt her vines go looser, and she knew that the Koffing had made its move. Snivy launched herself towards the direction her vines were, and head butted into the purple Pokemon, knocking it backwards.

The smog cleared to reveal a fainted Koffing.

Roxie gritted her teeth and returned her pokemon. She reached for her another capsule, and threw it out. A pokemon shaped like a tire came out. Spikes projected out from its body and a glowing yellow eye was on both side of its body.

"Whirlipede! Poison Sting!"

A dart-like purple attack shot towards Snivy and hit her, making her hiss and fall onto the ground. She scrambled up and tackled into the bug/poison type pokemon, knocking it over. She proceeded to swish some saliva in her mouth and spit it into the Whirlipede's eyes.

It screeched out in disgust and spun around in circles, trying to get the spit out of its eyes. The poor things hand no hands, so it couldn't wipe the saliva away. Snivy took this as a chance to tackle into the Pokemon again. The Whirlipede tumbled back and laid still on the ground, showing that it had fainted.

The room grew silent before awkward claps came from the crowd.

"What the heck…?" Roxie murmured in disbelief. "Did your Snivy just SPIT at my Pokemon?"

"I guess she did!"

"Well. You won…" the Gym Leader muttered and walked up to Mei with a tiny purple badge and disk." That's the Toxic Badge and that's TM nine, Venoshock. Now tell me the news my dad told you to tell me."

Mei smiled as she took the items and placed them in the rightful cases in her bag. "Your dad told me that he gave up his career in acting-"

"That doofus! I told him not to even try!" Roxie interrupted, and jumped down from the stage. The crowd split apart to make a walkway for her as she stormed by and out the door.

"Well. Time to see Christoph!" Mei exclaimed.

"_Snivvv!"_

Mei looked down at her pokemon and gasped." Snivy…Why are you GLOWING?"

* * *

**OH YES! AND QUESTION: What Water-Type should Mei have? I'm thinking about Frillish or something. I'm trying to get her to use Pokemon that aren't often seen in stories. And her flying type too. I'm thinking about Braviary. Please leave so suggestions!~**

**As always, stay happy and safe guys!**


	8. Return of the Stupid Ninja

**TheOneMagic: xD**

**Jasmine831: ME too! **

**ThePeacockFeather: Hello! Thank you!**

**starpokemon123: :D It's okay! **

**emo1neko: :)**

**FireDragonX23: Thank you!**

**Gemstone Gal:Yay!~**

**Sakai Kamichi:LOL**

**Ferretess: Dunsparces are so bad, they're awesome xD**

**arkee: With the help of character development, she'll get better :D**

**Geekachu:LOL, thanks!**

* * *

"Snivy? What's wrong? Are you sick?" Mei asked. Snivy made no reply as her body began to grow taller. The glow suddenly intensified and Mei had to look away for a moment.

Finally the light around Snivy subsided, revealing a pokemon that Mei had no idea what it was. The top of its head reached her thighs, a bit taller than Snivy. It had a green and vanilla colored body, with two bored looking red eyes, just like Snivy. Its legs were tiny, and Mei wondered how the thing could stand on them. It resembled Snivy, but it wasn't her.

Mei circled around it, looking for where Snivy was. She made one full trip around the pokemon and gasped. Snivy was gone.

"Did she give birth to this thing and… die?" Mei said out loud, trying to blink back the tears that were forming in her eyes.

"_Serrvv…." _the pokemon muttered and shook her head disdainfully.

The guitarist advanced towards her, twirling her black ponytail with her hand. "Your Snivy, like, evolved."

Mei furrowed her eyebrows together and wiped her eyes with her hand. "Evolved?"

"Like, yeah. Like, do you even know what that is?"

"No?"

The guitarist rolled her eyes." Like, you don't know what evolution is? Oh my gosh, how are you, like, even a trainer? Like okay, I'll tell you. Evolution is like, when pokemon change their like, forms, and become even like, stronger."

Mei widened her eyes and stared down at the grass type Pokemon beside her." So this thing is Snivy?" she asked, pointing down at the pokemon.

"Like, yeah. Gosh, you're like, so dumb about like, pokemon stuff."

_That's another person who told me a similar thing... _The brunette shook her head and sniffled." I was so scared that Snivy had died!" She scooped up her pokemon in her arms and rubbed her cheek against her head." You're a lot heavier now, but you're still Snivy! Let's go see Christoph now!" With that said she came down from the stage and made her way through the crowd, ignoring all the stares she was getting. She skipped out the door, happily holding the evolved Pokemon in her arms.

* * *

The grass snake squeezed herself out of Mei's arms and plopped down onto the ground, walking beside her trainer.

"So Snivy-"

"_Servine."_

Mei's eyebrows rose."What's a Servine?"

The grass snake thumped her arms against her chest. _"Servine!"_

"Huh? Your name is Servine? So Snivy wasn't your real name?!"

Servine shook her head and sighed. " _Serrr. Serrvine. Serrv!"_

"How does that work? When pokemon evolve their name changes?"

Servine nodded her head.

"So you want me to call you Servine?" The Pokemon nodded again.

Mei stayed quiet for a moment before brightening up her face with a smile. "How about if I give you a nickname? Dumdum and Fluffy have one, so why don't I give you one as well? That way if you evolve again, I wouldn't have to get adjusted to your new name!"

The grass-type pokemon widened her eyes. Dumdum. Fluffy? Would she get a name as stupid as those? Not wanting to take such a grave chance, she shook her head vigorously.

Mei pouted." Aw…okay…"

* * *

"Sniv- I mean Servine! Just past here is where I'm going to meet Christoph!" Mei squealed, bouncing up at down as she pointed towards the gateway connecting Virbank and Pokestar Studios. Servine yawned and pointed at Mei's bag, where her Pokeball was.

"Oh fine Sni- Servine," Mei replied and recalled the newly evolved pokemon. The brunette giggled and skipped into the gate, immediately bumping into a blonde girl in front of her. The blonde shot her a glare before turning back around. The gate was crowded with girls that were trying to get through the doorway.

Mei managed to squeeze past the girls and out the door, before being led to the back of a huge crowd by a security guard. She cringed at the amount of screaming girls around her and clasped her hands over her ears. This was like Roxie's Gym, except at least a thousand times louder. She could barely even hear herself think!

All Mei could see were the back of the heads of the girls there. She stood on her tippy toes to see above the heads. For a moment, she saw a glimpse of green hair, before she was shoved back by some rude and crazy fangirls.

_This…SUCKS. All these girls are between me and Christoph!_ Mei thought to herself angrily. _This is a once in a life-time chance! I can't miss seeing him in real life! _Mei clapped her hands together and charged through the crowd, diving under arms, pushing past other girls, until she reached the front. Her hair had become mangled from the battlefield, but she didn't care. She grasped the red rope in front of her and jumped up and down to see past the line of security guards shielding Christoph from the fangirls. For the split second she managed to be above their heads, she saw nothing on the road.

Christoph was already gone.

Someone blew a whistle, and the guards in front of the crowd split apart. A chorus of disappointed voices came from the crowd, as they shoved past Mei to leave Pokestars Studio. Soon the guards left after the girls, and Mei stood by herself.

"I couldn't see him…" she whispered. "I missed my chance to see him because of those girls!" Mei stomped her foot and frowned down at the ground. _A star as famous as him would have a lot of fangirls. Stupid fangirls..._

"Mei! I finally found you!" Hugh yelled and ran up to her. "You need to come with me quickly."

The girl looked at the blue haired boy and sniffled."Hugh… I missed my chance to see Christoph…"

Hugh's face darkened at the sound of the star's name and sighed. "He has a lot of fans, so it's no wonder you didn't get too. Anyways, you need to come with me! I found Roxie outside, so I challenged her to a gym battle. I won and right after that, we saw Team Plasma. Roxie is holding them off right now, but we need to get there quickly."

Mei grabbed Hugh's arm before he could whirl around and leave. "Team Plasma? The heroes?" she asked.

Hugh stared at her like she'd grown another head. "Heroes? Why the heck are you calling those turds heroes?"

The brunette opened her mouth to talk, but closed it again. _If I tell him about the little demon and that Purrlion, he probably won't believe me. _"It's a long story," she said at last.

"Huh. Let's go then!" Hugh said and held her hand tighter. Before the girl could protest, he spun around and began sprinting, yanking her from her spot. Hugh let go of her hand, and Mei tried her best to keep up with his pace, occasionally cringing from the pieces of gum she was stepping on.

Mei's body just wouldn't let her keep up with her friend. He was drifting farther away from her now. "H-Hugh…" she called out in between pants. She slowed to a stop and leaned against a nearby building. " G-Go without me. I'll catch up eventually when I regain enough energy and scrape some gum off my shoes.

Mei could see the blue-haired boy sigh from the distance. Hugh jogged back over to her and bent down, making the girl face his back.

"Hugh? What are you doing?"

"I'll piggyback you. You're probably gonna take a long time, and we need you to fight the three idiots," he muttered and pulled at the collar of his jacket to cool his suddenly warm body. He felt Mei scramble onto his back almost immediately and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, nearly choking him. Hugh gagged and managed to cough out, "too….tight!"

"Oops! Sorry!" Her arms loosened around his neck. Hugh carefully placed his hands around Mei's legs to support them, and felt his face flare up. He began walking; occasionally hopping up to get a better grip of Mei. The girl was heavier then she looked.

"Hey Hugh, are you really sure about giving me a piggyback ride?"

"Shouldn't you ask that before you got on my back? Besides, I'm not doing it for you.

Mei laughed and paused a moment before saying," Sorry. It's just I got really excited about getting a piggyback ride. The last one I got was from my dad before he went away. But thanks for letting me ride your back!"

"I d-didn't do it for you, okay?" Hugh took note of the quiet and more mature tone in her voice. It didn't sound at all like the airheaded Mei he always known. "Hey… Not that I care or anything, but you okay?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Still a little bummed about not seeing Christoph though." Hugh scowled; that wasn't what he was asking about!

"Do you think I'm bad at being a pokemon trainer, Hugh?" she asked suddenly.

Hugh raised his eyebrows and turned his head to look at the girl from the corner of his eye. "What makes you say that?"

"A couple of people have been telling me that…"

The boy hopped slightly to lift the girl up again." I haven't had a battle with you yet because of that certain pokemon, but you can't be that bad."

Mei let out a heavy sigh." A lot of people have been telling me that I'm really bad with the basics of pokemon. Maybe I should just go back home and go on a journey later, after I watch some shows and learn more about the basics of battling."

"NO!" Hugh shouted, and cursed at himself mentally when he realized he had shouted that just a bit too quickly and loudly. "I-I mean, you shouldn't do that. You'd be letting down your pokemon and… m-me. And you don't know much about battles since you stayed home all the time …" Hugh's voice trailed off, as he felt a strange kind of anger fill inside him.

Mei smiled before frowning." That's true, but that doesn't change the fact about how I hardly know anything about pokemon…"

"You don't know a lot about battling because you spent years at home, watching that..._sissy _boy instead of learning about pokemon with me!" Hugh spat out.

" Christoph is _not_ a sissy boy!" Mei replid defensively, her inner fangirl coming out."He is a multi-talented, beautiful, wonderful, handsome-"

"Alright I GET it!"Hugh yelled, lowering himself to the point where Mei's feet touched and let go of the girl. He pried her hands off around his neck and trudged forward, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Mei stood stunned for a moment, with her mouth gaping like a Magikarp. She recovered and speed walked towards her childhood friend. Once she was beside him, she latched onto to his jackets so she could keep up. "Hugh? What's wrong?"

Hugh glanced at her and whipped his head the other way." Nothing," he muttered.

"Ah… I see… It's that time of month for you, isn't it?" Mei joked and grinned widely.

"W-what?"

* * *

They finally came upon Roxie swinging her black guitar case at three strangely dressed people in the front of the docks. They wore the same gray morph suits, a black vest over their chest, a beret, and mask as the guy Mei had found in Flocessy Ranch. Mei widened her eyes. They were from Team Plasma and wore the strange-looking ninja costume that the stupid ninja had worn!

"Looks like Roxie still managed to hold them off," Hugh said, lowering himself down so Mei could get off. Once Mei was on the ground, he stood up and stretched his arms. "Time to teach those turdheads a lesson for stealing my sister's Purrloin! You ready Hermit?"

"Uh…" Mei was at a contradiction here. She could either help Hugh and Roxie and teach Team Plasma a lesson for dressing up as stupid ninjas, or do nothing and secretly thank Team Plasma for stealing the little demon's Purrloin. They had after all, saved her from a lifetime of scratches and bites from the little demon's Purrloin.

Hugh raised an eyebrow at her. "Mei? Are you seriously thinking about whether or not to battle them? They're pokemon thieves!"

The girl widened her blue eyes. She did NOT know that. "They're Pokemon thieves?! Why would anyone steal pokemon? I mean, they're everywhere!"

"I don't know, ask them! Now come on!" Hugh urged, and the two ran over to where Roxie and the three grunts were.

"You two sure took your time," Roxie hissed, once the two young trainers were beside her.

"Shut up…" Hugh said and glared at the three orange-haired people in front of him. If looks could kill, they would have been a bloody mess on the ground by now.

Upon closer observation, Mei realized each of them had blue eyes and orange hair styled the same way (except for the girl, who had a bob cut). "T-They all look the same!" she blurted.

"Gah! It is you!" the Team Plasma grunt in front of Mei exclaimed, staring at her with eyes the size of saucers. "That's the girl at Flocessy Ranch who stopped our plans, threw a town map at me, and insulted Team Plasma!"

The brunette pointed at the man with her mouth wide open." You're the stupid ninja!"

"Would you STOP calling me that?!"

"Shush you two! Let me answer her question of why we all look the same. I like hearing myself talk," the man in the middle said and cleared his throat. "It's the rule our seven sages made! Each member now must wear a mask over the lower part of their face and dye their hair orange, so we can hide our true identities!"

The female grunt closest to the ocean nudged the man in the arm." Leroy…Should you be saying some of Team Plasma's secrets like that? And these kids look strong…" she said, motioning her head at Hugh and his glare.

"It's Mr. Jenkins to you! Have some respect for the leader of this mission. And don't worry; a couple of kids are no match for the new and improved Team Plasma! We'll just steal their Pokemon and make a quick get away!"

Hugh scoffed at Leroy. "Let's see you try that Plasma trash! You're about to feel my rage for that time when you guys stole my sister's Purrloin!"

_And I thank you doing so. _ Mei added in her head.

"You're about to feel my rage? That sounded so stupid!" Roxie said in between snickers. Hugh glowered at her and tossed out a Pokeball.

A chubby pig-like pokemon came out, wearing a goofy grin on his face. He stood on two stubby legs and raised his arms into the air, as if showing off his non-existent muscle. He had a black marking across his red body, with two golden pieces of fur swirling out to form something that looked like a wrestler's outfit on T.V ( Mei sometimes would stumble upon that channel back at home, and had nightmares about hairy men in tight clothes.)

"Ooo! What is that?" Mei asked.

"Pignite! Tepig evolved into a Pignite earlier."

"Snivy evolved too! I probably shouldn't show you her though." Hugh nodded his head in agreement.

"Alright enough chatter! Time to battle!" Roxie shouted, and sent out her Koffing. The grunts called out their pokemon as well, with 'stupid ninja' throwing out a Patrat.

"Okay stupid ninja! Here comes… FLUFFY!" A Mareep popped out of his Pokeball and bleated as he landed on the ground.

"Don't call me that!" the man screeched. " Go Patrat! Teach that girl and Mareep a lesson for insulting me and Team Plasma!"

"_Patatatat!"_ the Patrat cried as it trotted towards Fluffy on all fours once it landed on the ground. Electricity sparked in Fluffy's wool, before suddenly shooting out with a sizzle in the air. The Thundershock hit the Patrat, making it cry out in pain and plopping down onto the ground, its fur smoking. Fluffy charged towards the fallen Pokemon and rammed his body into it, making it tumble backwards on the ground.

"Oh no!" the stupid ninja yelled, running up to his pokemon. He frowned and returned it into its Pokeball, and shot a glare at Mei and her pokemon. "This was a little guy I just caught a couple minutes ago! You could have gone easier!"

Mei smirked down at the man. "Stupid ninja…you didn't need to battle then. You also lost because you committed a felony fashion with that stupid ninja outfit! "

The man twitched his eye and got up slowly. "WOULD YOU STOP CALLING ME STUPID NINJA?!" he blasted, finally losing it. "For the last time, this glorious outfit is our UNIFORM! You need to be SEVERLY punished for saying such INSULTS to me and my team!"

"Calm down stupid ninja…" Mei said quietly. This man was very quick to anger.

"GRAHHH!" the grunt screamed and threw off his beret. He gave his hat a kick, which just made it flop up a couple inches and fall back down. He scowled and picked up the dirtied hat and placed it back on his head.

"Tch… we lost…" Leroy muttered, reaching out his hands and grabbing the two other grunts that had just finished losing. They clustered together in a group, whispering into each other ear.

" Heh. What a bunch of weaklings!" Hugh exclaimed, smirking at the trio in front of them and recalling his Pignite. "They didn't even stand a chance!"

"Go to our final plan! RUN AWAY!" Leroy screamed, barging through the young trainers with the other two grunts following closely behind him.

"Oh no they don't! Help me catch those guys!" Roxie yelled, swinging the strap of her guitar case on her back and sprinting off. Hugh nodded and ran after her.

_A-ah. There's no way I can catch up to them… but I need to try and help them at least… _Mei thought to herself as she stood on the dock. _But there's that show I seen on television that my mom told me not to watch because it made some offending jokes. _She tightened her lip into a thin line as she tried to remember that joke.

Suddenly, parts of it came back to her and she quickly cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed at the top of her lungs," YO MAMA IS…" Mei's voice trailed off as her mind drew a blank to what came next.

The people that were running ahead abruptly stopped and turned around to give the brunette an odd look. Leroy stormed a couple feet backwards. "What did you just say about my mother?" he demanded, glaring daggers at the girl.

"Fluffy! Shoot a Thunder Wave at that man!" Mei commanded and widened her eyes at her pokemon as he sent a weak electric shock towards the grunt, making him yell out and fall to the ground. Fluffy now had pink skin, partly covered with white wool. He stood on his hind legs and bleated, _"Flaffy"_, at his trainer.

Mei smiled." You must have evolved when I wasn't looking! And you're a Flaffy now? It sounds just like your name!"

"Oh no, Leroy!" the stupid ninja yelled, running over to the paralyzed man along with the female grunt.

"Now that I think about it, if we ran over that way, we wouldn't have been able to escape anyways," the orange-haired lady said as she helped the stupid ninja lift Leroy into the air.

"You're right!" the man replied and sent one last glare at Mei before running over to the edge of the boardwalk. The two held the paralyzed man tightly over them and jumped into the ocean with a splash.

Roxie and Hugh ran over to where Mei was and they scanned over the ocean. No sign of the Team Plasma popping up from the water.

"The heck? They just jumped into the ocean carrying a man?" Roxie muttered, scratched the back of her head.

"D-Did they just commit suicide? I drove the poor man into committing suicide by calling him stupid ninja…" Mei breathed, guilt completely washing over her.

Hugh got on his knees and peered carefully into the water. He sighed as he looked at the two girls."I bet they're in a submarine or cowards."

"I hope they drown," Roxie said, scowling. She walked over to the house nearby them and knocked on the door." Pops! You can come out now. Team Plasma is gone."

"T-they are?" The door creaked open and the man Mei had seen earlier walked out. He wore a white cap and nice looking black navy suit. "Well hello there!" he said, smiling widely. "Thanks to you, my daughter and I were…able to talk it out better."

"You're still a coward for making someone else tell it to me for you…" Roxie muttered, making her father's smile turn into a forced one.

"A-Anyways, I'll take you and your friend there to Castelia City. I was a sailor before I tried to become a movie star, but I'm becoming a sailor again." Roxie's father said, pointing towards a boat floating in the water next to the building he came from. It was a medium sized boat painted partly green, with a wooden deck.

Hugh smiled." That'd be great! We'll be able to battle the third Gym there and crush more Team Plasma grunts!"

"There's a gym there?!" Mei exclaimed, widening her eyes.

The man nodded. "Castelia City is full of things! It's one of the top ten places to visit in the world according to this magazine. I'll take you right now, if you'd like." He glanced up at the darkening sky and said," We should get there by at least sunrise."

"Alright then. I'll head back to the Gym. See ya!" Roxie said, and turned around, walking back to said place.

* * *

"It's good to back where I belong." Roxie's father said as he walked inside the room with the material to drive the boat. He flicked on the power, immediately bringing light all over the boat. The two teens were up on the deck, and his job was to bring them to Castelia. He grab a hold of the wheel, and smiled at how right it felt in his hands.

A hand tapped on his shoulders. "Do you need anything- "he said before taking a good look at the person in front of him. He stumbled backwards as he gawked up at the person. "W-what are you doing on this boat?"

* * *

**GEN 6 NEWS CAME OUT, BUT IT'S ON THE 3DS. T.T( I have a DSi)**

**As always, please review!~ I really appreciate them :D**


	9. Clash of Teeth

**I'M STILL COOKIESHIPPING GUYS! JUST CHANGED MY NAME.**

**Because I don't want to make my AN long(and im lazy), I won't do the replying thing in this chappie(it'll start again though!). But please know I really appreciate them! Looks like a lot of us don't have 3DS T.T**

* * *

"_Ring ring ring."_

Groaning, Hugh flung his arm out to hit the obnoxiously loud object, just like he did back home every morning when his alarm clock rang. His hand flew through air, and hit against very hard, metallic, and _painful_ thing: the rails of the boat.

"Ow!" he cried out, using his other hand to rub his aching hand. Well, at least that woke him up. He straightened his back, after realizing somehow, he had managed to fall asleep with his head and arms dangling over the railing of the boat. Bringing up his ringing Xtransceiver, he checked the caller.

"Mei's mom is calling me? That's unusual…" he mused, pressing the answer button.

A woman with brown haired tied into a bun appeared onto the other side of the screen. She smiled cheerfully at the boy, who managed to force one onto his face, ignoring the throbbing in his hand.

"Good morning! I didn't wake you up too early, did I?" she asked, her eyes filling with concern and her eyebrows scrunching up together. Hugh shook his head, and watched Mei's mom's facial expression relax. "Alright that's good! And before you call me miss or ma'am, call me auntie!" she chirped with a smile."Anyways, where are you?"

"I'm on a boat to Castelia…" Hugh replied, turning his head away from the camera to look at the city. A pinkish sky with a blue tint was above the tall, looming skyscrapers. Lights were flickering on in each of buildings, and people were starting to roam around the big streets. The city was slowly waking up.

"It's pretty right?" Mei's mom said, bringing Hugh's attention back the device. "I went there when I had a job as a Pokecenter receptionist…" she said, her voice trailing off as she scrunched up her face like she was trying to remember something. After a moment, her face lit up with a grin. "Oh yes! Is Mei with you?"

Hugh glanced over his shoulder, his gaze sweeping across the deck. The floor was made of wood painted with white paint (most of it had been chipped off), and there was a small bench attached by the door that led to the inside of the boat. That was basically everything on deck, with no Mei in sight.

What if she fell overboard? Did Mei still remember how to swim? The last time they had gone swimming was when they were about seven… And Mei did tend to be forgetful at times.

Oh no.

"U-Um, hold on auntie!" Hugh yelled, receiving a nod from Mei's mom. Hugh tried to move to the other side of the boat, to check if Mei was there but something was holding his legs back. His gaze trailed down to his feet, to find a certain sleeping brunette girl with her arms wrapped around his legs.

Just how did she manage to fall asleep in such strange positions? Well, actually, he wasn't one to talk either (seeing how he fell asleep with half his body hanging off the boat).

"Is Mei there?" the woman repeated, in a worried tone.

"Y-yeah, she's sleeping," he replied, gently shaking his leg so Mei would slip off. The girl mumbled something and held his leg tighter.

Mei's mother sighed in relief." You know… I told myself I wouldn't be one of those worrying parents when Mei started her journey, but I just keep worrying about her. She hardly has any experience about pokemon and pokemon battles, and with being stuck at home for so long, she isn't very athletic… Not to mention she lacks common sense, is quite clumsy, dense, has strange conclusions-"

"Um…auntie?" Hugh interrupted quietly, afraid that if he didn't, Mei's mom would go on to rant about her daughter's flaws for the rest of day.

The woman laughed and smiled." Sorry…I got off topic. You always have been such a good friend to Mei. You checked up on her when she always stayed home, and it made her really happy. Mei really did help cheer me up when news of my husband death came, and she was able to do that because of you. So, can I ask you to keep an eye on Mei during your journeys?"

"K-keep an eye on her? I'll do it…auntie, but only because you asked me too!"

"Oh yay! Thanks Hugh!" She stopped talking to yawn. "Well… I'm going to go back to sleep. I was just woken up by the sudden concern for my daughter. So,bye! Good luck!" With that said, the screen went black.

The boy's eyes looked down at the brunette girl and sighed. He reached down and grabbed the girl's hands, slowly pulling her up. Mei swayed forwards and then dangerously backwards, her mouth wide open with drool threatening to spill out. Hugh huffed and pulled her back forwards, making her fall into his chest. Flustered, he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her an arm's distance away.

He started shaking her in an attempt to wake her up. "Mei we're almost here. Would ya wa- "Hugh said, and was interrupted by a sudden jerk of the boat, making him lurch forward.

"Gah-" he yelped, before his teeth collided against Mei's. A searing pain shot out throughout his mouth and he let Mei thud onto the ground to rub his finger through them. He brought his finger out to examine it and was relieved to find no blood on it. His gums and teeth still felt like they were on fire though.

"Wait a minute," Hugh said, a blush creeping onto his face. "If my teeth touched hers then that would mean…t-that would mean…" He touched his lips, making his blush worsen.

"H-Hugh? Is that you? Geez… my head and mouth hurt," Mei murmured, getting up from the floor and rubbing the back of her head. The red-faced boy slowly turned his head over, eyes wide opened like he had seen something terrifying.

"Did something happen? You're face is really red and-"

"I-I'm going to look for Team Plasma!" Hugh shouted, covering his face with his elbow as he ran past Mei and climbed over the rails. He then jumped from the rails and stumbled onto a wooden boardwalk, which was just a couple inches away from them, and took off again.

Mei got up from the floor and up to the rails, staring at her childhood friend's retreating figure in awe. "Whoa…I wish I could do that!" With her athletic abilities, she would probably end up in the ocean.

"_So we have docked in Castelia City! There's a walkway out, and I'll meet you guys there to say my farewells."_ a voice boomed throughout the boat.

Mei made her way around the boat to the other side, where some white stairs were. She looked around her." That's weird. I thought he said he would be here."

"That's because I'm here behind you!"

Mei whirled around to the person and screamed. An aged man wearing a poncho with wild red hair stood there, laughing manically.

Alder.

"Y-YOU. What are y-you doing here? And w-where's Roxie's dad?" Mei asked in a trembling voice; she was scared to find out the answer.

Alder said nothing and gave her a wide and creepy grin.

Mei felt her insides twist. _Alder ate him! _her thoughts screamed, making her feel light-headed. "Y-You monster!" Mei managed to squeak, and turned around and bolted down the stairs. She ran through the streets of Castelia, bumping into the people coming out of their homes and flooding onto the streets. Se didn't care though. She just wanted to be as far away from the boat.

_Poor sailor man! Maybe Hugh saw Alder eat Roxie's father! That would explain why he ran away. Poor Hugh. He's scarred for life now. I should try and find him, so I can help him release some of the trauma._ Mei thought, as she ran around a corner, and nearly crashed into a tan man wearing sunglasses. Luckily she stopped just in time.

"Whoa! Hey there Mei!" Clyde, the sunglass wearing man exclaimed." Burgh, the Gym Leader, isn't here right now. He told me he had some important business to intend too."

"Burgh always has stuff like that to do! What is it this time?" a girl with chocolate colored skin and red eyes butted in. She had long and thick dark purple hair, with part of it tied into two ponytails at the top of her head.

"Iris!" Clyde greeted."Burgh went to do some business with Team Plasma."

"Team Plasma?" Mei repeated, her eyes widening._ Hugh is probably out looking for them! _

Iris suddenly whirled around and grabbed Mei's hands, shaking them excitedly." I'm Iris by the way! What's your name?"

Mei managed to grin back at her while being shaken by the girl. Iris had a lot more strength than she appeared to have. "I'm Mei, and-"

"Cool! Are you looking for Team Plasma?"

"Well…to find Hugh, I guess I need to find them as wel- Whoa!" Mei yelped as she was suddenly being dragged by the hyperactive girl, zooming through people walking by.

"I'll take you the most suspicious place in Castelia! I know for sure that Team Plasma is there!" Iris exclaimed.

* * *

"Mr. Alder?" Roxie's father called out meekly, peeking out from the door. "Do you…like to scare kids for a hobby?"

Alder turned his head, his hair flying majestically in the ocean breeze, and grinned. "Not scare. Troll. I troll kids as a hobby."

* * *

**ALDER IS BACK!**

**Ugh, I suck at writing romance scenes. -.- Anyways please drop a review! They help me get motivated to write more!**


	10. Visor Face

Iris bulleted down the stairs, with Mei in tow behind her. They reached the bottom and Mei placed her hand against the wall, red-faced and panting. She took a deep breath, taking in air to soothe her burning lungs. "C-Could we take a rest?" she asked, looking up at Iris with a pleading look in her eyes.

"Oh, but we're right here!" the girl replied, pointing towards a pitch black opening in the wall. The sound of water echoed out from it, mixing together with the sound of waves crashing against the island.

"There?"

Iris nodded, a grin stretching across her face." It's the most suspicious place in Unova! Bad guys are always in sewers! Well, I'm gonna go and see Castelia all over again! "With that said, the girl sprinted off in a flash.

"Sewer?" Mei repeated. She blinked, realizing that the girl was already gone. "What a strange girl… Anyways, if Team Plasma might be here, then Hugh might be here too," she mused, turning around to face where the sewers were. Her friend needed her right now, especially after him possibly seeing Alder eat another man.

Footsteps thudded on the ground behind her, and she whirled around, making eye contact with crimson ones. It was none other than… "Hugh!" Mei exclaimed, using her remaining energy to walk towards the boy.

Hugh widened his eyes and took a few steps backwards, before turning around and running back towards the stairs.

_What the…Why is he running? _The brunette quickened her walking pace, doing her best to keep her friend in sight. "Hugh? Why are you running? Did it really traumatize you that much?"

The boy stopped at the top of the stairs, turning around with his face unusually red. Mei halted at the bottom of the stairs, keeping a hand on Servine's Pokeball. If he tried running again, she was going to have to use drastic measures. She wasn't going to let him run away when he needed someone to talk to.

"I-It wasn't traumatizing…" Hugh muttered, slowly stepping down the stairs with his head hung low.

Mei raised an eyebrow. _He saw Alder devour another man and he doesn't think that was traumatizing? That takes some balls of steel. Unless…_"Don't tell me…you _enjoyed_ it?"

Hugh's shoulders went stiff as he slightly lifted his head to glance at Mei. He quickly crossed his arms and turned his head away." I-I didn't enjoy it, stupid!"

"Whew! For a second, I thought you were crazy or sadistic. So…are you okay?"

"O-okay? W-what's that's supposed to mean?"

Mei blinked up at him. Hugh wasn't this clueless, was he? Witnessing Alder eat Roxie's father must have really shaken him up. "Like…I mean, after that happening, you must be really horrified!"

The boy's face turned even redder and he turned his gaze away from the brunette. "I-I'm not…horrified," he muttered, just loud enough for Mei to hear him.

"You're not horrified?" The brunette stared at the boy in surprise. "You're really brave Hugh! If I saw Alder eating someone-"

Hugh gave her an odd look. "Alder eating someone? Wait, are we talking about the same thing here?"

Mei shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I'm talking about Alder eating Roxie's father."

"Wait what?!"

Mei nodded. "I'll tell you more about it inside there," she said, pointing towards the hole in the wall." A girl told me Team Plasma might be in there."

* * *

The two made their way down a flight of stairs, a dull bitter smell growing stronger the closer they go to the bottom. With each step they took, the light grew dimmer and dimmer, until the only source was the faint one of old lamps attached to the steel walls. Leaky pipes were hung from the ceiling, and tangled around one another as they made their way down the walls, dripping water on the floor. Water flowed through the middle, separating two roads. On the roads were Rattata scurrying around, Grimers lazily lurking in the corners and Zubat hanging from the ceilings, deep in slumber.

The bitter smell grew even stronger once they were at the bottom, the source of it coming from the Grimers scattered around. Mei wrinkled her nose and turned around, about to run out of there. Hugh grabbed her arm before she could bolt away and pulled her to the front of him.

"But Hugh! It stinks in here!" she complained, wiggling her arm out of his grip.

"We have to look around in here for Team Plasma before we leave. Just endure it like me," he replied in a muffled voice.

Mei noticed that the boy had hidden half his face in the collar of his jacket to block out the smell. "Hey! You cheater!" she said, pinching her nose and using her other hand to point accusingly at the boy.

"Told you the collar comes in handy."

Mei frowned as she remembered the time a couple months ago when Hugh had came into the brunette's house to show off his new jacket. Mei had stared at him in bewilderment, saying how the collar of his jacket would just help choke him one day and looked silly. Now she just wanted that collar to be covering her nose. Or maybe something else could…

An idea coming to her, she grabbed her visor with her hand and pulled it down, making sure to not mess up her hair. She fixed it over the bridge of her nose and smirked up at Hugh, releasing her nose from the pinching. "My hat can just be as useful as your jacket!" she exclaimed. Sure, she had a little trouble breathing, but at least the stench wasn't as strong anymore.

Hugh stared at her for a moment, before laughing. She resembled a Ducklett with that hat over her nose."You look so weird. So what happened on the boat?" he asked, as the two began to walk into the depths of the sewer.

"Are you sure you saw Alder eating Roxie's dad?" Hugh asked his eyes wide with shock.

"I didn't see it, but I'm positive he got eaten! I saw Alder on the boat, but I didn't see Roxie's dad. Didn't you see him eating him, Hugh?"

"No?"

"Then… why did you run away from the boat?"

Hugh stopped abruptly, blushing furiously while remembering what had happened earlier. He silently thanked the lights in here for being so dim that Mei couldn't see his red face. "D-Do you remember what happened before I ran away?"

Mei scrunched her eyebrows together and looked up in the ceiling littered with Zubats. _I sure hope Zubats don't poop in their sleep. _Straying away from her worried thoughts, she shook her head." No, I don't. What happened? Was there like a zombie floating around in the ocean?"

Hugh stared at her, feeling relieved and yet…disappointed. He sighed and continued walking, casting a sideways glance at the brunette." You really don't remember?"

"Nope. Unless you're talking about how much my mouth and head were hurting in the morning. Wait a minute." A look of pure horror crossed her face. "Maybe that zombie you saw…ATTACKED me! Oh no… Hugh, you better run. Just looking at your hair is making me crave some Quilfish!"

"I didn't see a zombie, okay? They don't even exist. Wait… did you say QUILFISH?!" Hugh yelled and smacked the brunette on the head. So many kids in his neighborhood would poke fun of his hair by saying it looked like a Quilfish. Sometimes, even his family would let that joke slip. To say he was tired of that joke would be an understatement.

"Ouch…" Mei rubbed her head and glared at the boy, before her glare changed into a look of confusion." If you didn't see a zombie, then why'd you run away?"

Hugh crossed his arms and turned his head away. "I-I saw nothing!"

"Hmm…Maybe Servine saw something!"

Hugh widened his eyes and whipped his head back around. "Wait -"he called, but it was too late. The grass snake pokemon was already by him, making cooing sounds as she rubbed her head against his thigh.

"Sni- I mean, Servine, did you see anything while we were on a boat?" Mei asked.

Servine deadpanned at the visor on her trainer's face. _"Serv,"_ she said, pointing at the hat with a skinny arm.

"Oh this?" Mei said while touching the visor." It's to help me not smell that stench. Anyways, did you see anything while we were on a boat?"

"_Serrvin?"_

Mei nodded."We were on a boat." She sighed and held her head down." Terrible things happened on the boat…"

Servine decided to ignore the last bit she had said. It was probably something stupid. _"Servii, serr,"_ the grass pokemon said, pointing at Mei's bag with her arm.

"You couldn't see anything because of my bag?" Servine nodded.

"Hmm…"

Hugh let out a quiet sigh of relief. He wouldn't have to deal with a jealous pokemon and embarrassment of Mei knowing what had happened. He scooted away from Servine, only to have her hug his leg again. "Mei, could you recall Servine?"

"Yup!" Mei reached out a Pokeball, returning Servine back into the ball in a flash of red light.

"Thanks…"

"One thing I'm curious about is that you ran away…but you didn't see anything. That sounds kind of weird. Are you sure you didn't see anything odd that made you run away?" Mei asked, knitting her eyebrows together.

Why did she have to get so curious now? "I didn't-"

"OH WAIT!" she shouted suddenly, her face brightening. "I remember now! You said you were trying to find Team Plasma!"

Hugh mentally slapped himself. He had yelled that hastily and it went completely over his head. If he had said that earlier, then he wouldn't have had this entire conversation "Yeah I did. I looked all over Castelia and came over here because this was the one place I didn't check."

Mei waggled a finger in a scolding fashion." Tsk, tsk. It's not good to be so forgetful!"

"A-at least I didn't forget what happened this morning!" Hugh blurted out and mentally slapped himself again for saying things without thinking.

Mei stared at her friend in bewilderment. "I remember what happened this morning! Alder ate Roxie's dad! There's no way I would forget that. I feel so bad for Roxie and her dad…"

"T-That wasn't what I mean…"

"Eh?"

Hugh sighed." J-Just forget it…"

The brunette shook her head and gave the boy a determined look. "I'm curious now! What were you talking about Hugh?"

"I said forget it!"

Mei raised her eyebrows. Whatever it was, Hugh didn't want to talk about it. "Well...Alright," she said," I respect your wishes."

"No! Eevee come back!" a male voice yelled, startling both trainers. Seconds later, a brown tiny fox-like creature limply hopped around the corner, before crumpling against the wall.

"That Eevee looks hurt!" Mei said worriedly, and approached the Eevee with Hugh behind her. The pokemon gave a startled cry as it was suddenly hoisted into the air. It stared for a long time at the visor on Mei's face before pawing it in curiosity.

"H-Hey! What are you doing with my Eevee?!" demanded the voice from before. The two teens looked up to see a man storm up to them wearing the same costume that the stupid ninja had worn.

Hugh's facial expression hardened at the sight of the grunt."This isn't your Eevee is it?"

The man took a small step backwards from the two teens. The blue-haired boy's glare was pretty scary and the girl with the visor on her face was just…weird. "O-Of course it is! Or it's going to be. I spent an hour looking for an Eevee in Castelia Gardens! I accidently kicked it while I was looking for it and then it managed to escape me. But I found it first, so hand it over!"

Mei gasped. "You kicked it?"

The man gave an irritated sigh. "I said it was on accident! Now hand it over!"

Mei looked down at the pokemon in her arms, only to find it snarling at the man. If some random guy in a strange ninja outfit kicked her, Mei would have acted the same way. "I think Eevee doesn't want to!"

The man's face scowled as he reached out his gloved hands to snatch the pokemon away. The Eevee bared her teeth again and snapped at his hands, making him jerk his hands away with a girlish yelp.

"HAH! It doesn't want to be with you because of your weird ninja cosplay!" Mei declared.

"Why you little…Our outfits are GLORIOUS!" the man blasted, his face livid.

"Glorious for being RIDICULOUS!" Mei shouted excitedly and smirked when she heard Hugh snicker next to her. She was getting better at coming up with insults!

The grunt narrowed his eyes into slits. "Says the girl with a visor on her face. You could win an award for ridiculousness with that on!"

"W-well…"Mei gulped. She couldn't think of a comeback to retort with. She was relieved when Hugh stepped in front of her, glaring daggers at the man.

"Just why are you here? To steal more pokemon?" he growled. Mei flanked beside her friend, quietly glancing at his face. With the help of the dim lights, his red eyes seemed to be glowing, making his glare more intimating. Mei would have to admit, her friend could look scary when he wanted too.

"Not steal. Liberate!" the man replied fretfully, glancing over his shoulder. "Hey! I could use some backup!" He waited for a moment and sighed, before yelling again."Hey! Backup!"

Mei watched him repeatedly yell into the air and receive no replies. "He must be crazy!" she hissed to Hugh, loud enough for the grunt to hear. The grunt shot her a murderous glare, before running back the way he came from.

"Hey! Stop you coward! Come on Hermit!" Hugh yelled as he began running after him, leaving Mei in the dust.

"I will avenge your injured body!" Mei swore righteously to the Eevee, and took off after them.

* * *

Mei made her way around the corner, watching the walls shift from the steel ones to ones made out of red bricks. In the far back was a pitch black hole, possibly leading to a cave.

"I'm gonna tell boss that you were sleeping on the job!" the grunt from before chided to a sleepy looking man slumped against the wall. Mei decided to name him Grunt 1 and the grunt on the floor, Grunt 2.

The man yawned before talking." Sorry. Did you get the Eevee you wanted?"

Mei shook her head and raised the Eevee high above her head to emphasis that she had it. "Nope! It ran away from him because he KICKED it and cus he's wearing a weird ninja costume. Why is that your uniform?"

Grunt 1 shook with anger and irritation. He clenched his fists, trying to restrain himself from strangling the weird girl with a visor on her face. Grunt 2 patted Grunt 1's shoulders."Don't worry. We'll just steal their pokemon and then you can have the Eevee back. Plus, we could make fun of their outfits!"

Grunt 1 stopped shaking and grinned at his partner. "Great idea! Prepare to hand over your pokemon kids!" He sent out a Scraggy. The other grunt threw out a Pokeball, releasing a Sandile.

Hugh smirked at Mei." This is going to be easy."

* * *

"Hit em' with another Leaf Tornado!" Servine nodded at Mei and gave Hugh a quick wink before spinning around on her head, quickly creating a vortex of wind and leaves at the tip of her tail. She stopped spinning and jumped into the air, firing the mini tornado at Sandile with a flick of her tail. The ground type cried out as it was hit by the move, and fainted next to the already unconscious Scraggy (who was defeated by Pignite.) The two trainers recalled their pokemon.

The grunts returned their pokemon. "Well. I never needed an Eevee!" Grunt 1 said and forced a pained laugh. Grunt 2 patted his back again, and the two suddenly sped off, barging through the two trainers.

Mei spun around, using one hand to reach into her bag and grab her town map. She looked up at sighed when she saw a glimpse of orange hair disappear up the stairs. "At this distance, I can't throw a town map at them," Mei said bitterly like a defeated hero.

"Tch. Doesn't matter, I'll get them all later. Let's go farther in and see if there are more goons!"Hugh said as he approached a dark alleyway.

"There was no one suspicious beyond here!" a voice chirped, making Hugh stumble backwards onto his butt. A man stepped out of the dark alleyway. Mei widened her eyes. Why…this man was gorgeous! He had curly golden hair, and vibrant green eyes. A scarf wrapped around his neck, and he wore a green shirt along with some striped red pants.

Hugh got up from the ground and brushed the dirt off his pants." Don't think I was scared!" he yelled and took a moment to analyze the man in front of them." Hey, you're Gym Leader Burgh!"

"Yes, indeed I am! The one and only Burgh! By the way, love your hair." He pointed to his hair and back to Hugh's. "See the resemblance?"

Mei nodded her head like an eager child. "I do!"

"You two!" a voice came from behind them. The three turned their heads to see a pair of glasses reflecting light inside the darkness of the giant hole.

"Two? There are clearly three of us!" Mei exclaimed. _This…cave hermit guy isn't very smart…_

* * *

**Review corner has been moved down here! I'm trying to make my chapters look less clunky, so I'm moving my AN to be here.**

**Gemstone Gal & TheOneMagic & Ferretess: Trolol!**

**emo1neko: Thanks!**

**Geekachu: xD**

**Meemeeru: Haha, awesome!**

**arkee:The world is very twisted!~ I didn't wanna make Mei the typical heroine... but I may have gone overboard o.o**

**Sakai Kamichi: I believe so o.o**

**FireDragonX23:Glad I could make you lol!**

**BIG H100: Maybe they will~  
**

**AngelKnightKaoru:You lucky you have 3ds xD**

**Ashleychanx:Thanks!**

**^thanks for reviewing~**

**So Mei's water type has been chosen!Thanks to those who voted!~****And the whole visor scene.. I used to put visors around my face when I was little. I'm weird. Please review for more!**


	11. Aglet

The voice gave a small laugh." Yes…That was certainly an outstanding performance of battling you two!"

Hugh stared warily at the man hidden away in the dark. "Who are you?"

"And there's actually three of us sir," Mei added. The figure's voice was full of intelligence, but if he didn't know how to count, he must be quite stupid.

The man laughed again. "I meant you two young trainers, not Burgh." The figure stepped out of the hole in the wall with an amused look. Behind his glasses was a pair of golden eyes that almost glowed catlike in the dimness. His golden hair was slicked back and blue strands of…something (Mei didn't know what it was) swung around his head.

"What is that? Is that like some sort of hair accessory?" Mei asked curiously. If it was, then she needed to get her hands on it!

Placing his hand on the blue thing, the man smiled mysteriously at her." This isn't a hair accessory." He paused, making Mei hold her breath in suspense."It's my hair."

The brunette released her breath in a sigh of disappointment. She was expecting it to be something else cooler then hair. One did not simply have blue hair that circled around their head without a cool reason.

"Well, anyways. I must thank you two for showing me such an amazing battle against an opponent like Team Plasma." The man nodded to himself before turning around and walking away, his white lab coat billowing behind him. _White lab coat? It's just like his…_ Mei thought and closed her eyes, taking a sniff of the air. Instead of that fresh smell she was expecting, she received a whiff of Grimer stench and she thanked that her hat was around her nose to block out most of it.

"Ho ho! And people call me weird!" Burgh said after the stranger had left. Well, I must go back to the gym after doing my business. Toodles! Hope you two stop by!" With that, he skipped away from their sights.

"OH GOSH!" Mei shrieked, staring at the unmoving Eevee in her arms. "T-The Eevee! It's not moving! A-And its eyes are closed! Hugh what do we do?"

"It's probably sleeping," he answered calmly, pulling out a potion from his bag. He sprayed it on the Eevee, who stirred in its sleep before sighing in comfort.

"You did it Hugh!" Mei exclaimed and grinned, remembering the boy with shorts who had given her 20 potions. Now she knew what this substance would do. She always knew they were helpful in battle, but she was never sure what.

"I didn't do anything except spray a potion!"

"But you saved its life!"

"It wasn't even dying! And we should still take it to the Pokecenter."

* * *

Tall buildings rose up to the sky, almost touching it. Mei strained her neck to look up at each skyscraper in awe, fixing her visor back onto its rightful place with a hand. This was her first time seeing anything so tall!

"Hermit! Hurry up! Help the Eevee and then you can sightsee!" Hugh shouted in front of the Pokecenter which had a giant screen of a Pikachu waving mounted on top of it. She nodded and hurried after him, opening the door to the building

"Mei."

"Huh?" The girl turned her head around her shoulder, giving Hugh a quizzical look for stopping.

Hugh sighed, remembering the promise he had made Mei's mother earlier. Nothing bad could happen in the Pokecenter, so it would be okay to leave Mei there. Besides, she had her pokemon with her. "I'm going to look for more Team Plasma grunts, so call me when the Eevee is healed," he said.

" Okay! Injure their legs, just like they've done to this Eevee!"

"I'll do worse things to them," Hugh muttered and took off running.

"To think the little demon and the demon Purrloin could make a boy so hateful to a group of people…" Mei mused with a frown and walked inside the building.

* * *

"It got kicked by a Team Plasma guy!" Mei announced as she handed Nurse Joy the Eevee.

"Oh… The poor thing…" Nurse Joy said and narrowed her eyes in a chiding manner." When your pokemon is tired, you need to carry it in its Pokeball! It tires it out even more when you carry it." She bent down to hand the pokemon to Audino, who grunted as she carried it into the room behind them.

"Oh no, it isn't my pokemon," Mei corrected, shaking her head. "It's a wild one that got injured."

"Oh. I'm sorry about scolding you then." She touched the Eevee's leg and frowned as it cried out in pain."Oh dear…a broken leg. It'll probably be healed in about an hour, so why don't you wait here or go explore the city a bit?"

"It's okay! Thank you Nurse Joy!" Shrill screaming outside caught her attention and she whirled around, staring at a wave of girls rush by the Pokecenter's windows. She turned back around with a gaping face. "Gwah?" she asked, pointing to the hoard of girls.

"Oh, them? I think they're here to see…Christopher? Yes, I overheard some girls earlier talking about it."

Mei felt her stomach twist with excitement. " Christoph? Do you mean Christoph?"

"Oh yes! It was Christoph! Do—"Nurse Joy blinked as she felt a breeze of wind blow across her face. She stared at the empty spot in front of her and laughed, before going back to the room to take care of the Eevee. Teenagers were so weird.

* * *

_Holy moly I have another chance to see Christoph again! ANOTHER CHANCE! But…THESE STUPID GIRLS NEED TO MOVE! _ Mei was stranded in a crowd, surrounded by screaming females and males (Mei found it quite odd they would come) wanting to see the idol come out of the building, finished with his television shoot. Unfortunately, all she could see were the backs of everyone's head. Suddenly, a girl shoved her to get in front of her, making her fall backwards into another girl, who then snarled at her and pushed her out of the way.

Eventually, she found herself in the very back on her bottom. Blowing her bangs out of her eyes, she stood up and dusted the gravel off her frilly yellow skirt. "This is WAR!" she declared and charged into the herd again. Pushing, diving, and stumbling past girls, Mei managed to make her way to front, clutching onto her hat with one hand and clutching the rope separating the crowd from the idol with the other.

Screaming suddenly increased tenfold in volume, making Mei flinch and turn her head. _Christoph must be here! _she thought as she watched the door of the building open and began jumping from excitement.

A smiling boy with lime green spiky hair walked out, flanked by a bunch of body guards. "CHRISTOPH!" Mei screamed, trying to make her voice be heard over the other screams. Then she saw _her_ and stopped. A girl with curly pink hair tied into a side pony tail walked by Christoph, giggling as the idol told her something. And they were holding hands.

"N-Nancy!" Mei gasped. Now she knew why so many males were here. Her and Christoph would have dating rumor pop up on T.V. She felt a pang of jealousy at the sight of the girl laughing and holding hands with Christoph as they strode into a luxurious looking limo at the end of the street. Fans immediately began to follow after them, bumping into a dazed Mei who was lost in her thoughts.

_I have no chance against Nancy for Christoph. Christoph doesn't even know I exist…_ Mei thought, reality hitting her like a hammer. Numbly, she sank down to the floor onto her knees, staring down at the ground. She didn't even care that people were walking around her, yelling at her to move.

* * *

Hugh made his way around the road, silently cursing at Team Plasma for being such good hiders. The red-eyed boy had run around the whole city at least twice, and couldn't find any signs of them. Fuming and tired, he plunked down in the nearest bench. He blinked twice at the scene in front of him. A brunette girl with two pigtails was kneeling down on the ground as people were swerving around her, shooting nasty glares.

"Is this some sort of YOLO thing?" he muttered to himself, deciding it was best to not get involved with weird people.

Wait.

His gaze shot back to the girl on the ground. Brown hair tied into two pigtails, a visor… Oh gosh. Jumping up from the bench, Hugh marched up to the girl in the middle of street glaring down at her with an annoyed look. "Mei! What the hell are you doing?!" he shouted, ignoring the weird looks he was getting from the people around him."You should be in the Pokecenter looking after that Eevee!"

The brunette slowly raised her head, dejected blue eyes meeting with startled red ones. The last time she had looked so sad was when news of her dad's death had happened. "W-What happened?" he asked.

"T-The… FEELS OF A GIRL!" she bellowed and choked on a sob. She coughed and rubbed her sleeve against her eyes, drying the tears threatening to spill out.

"…What?" Hugh asked, utterly confused. He glanced up at the people around them giving them dirty looks and hastily pulled Mei's arm to make her get up. He dragged the girl back into the Pokecenter and plopped down into the nearest chair inside.

"So what happened?" he asked, watching Mei sit in the seat across from him.

"The feels of-"

"Not that! That makes no sense!"

Mei nodded with a sniffle and looked down at her lap. "I realized that I have no chance to have Christoph…"

"That's it?" Hugh asked incredulously." That's why you were in the middle of the road depressed? That's so stupid!"

Mei stood up abruptly, startling Hugh at how fast she did. She huffed and glowered down at him, making Hugh feel slightly uncomfortable."You…" she said in a low voice." You wouldn't understand the FEELS OF A GIRL!" she wailed, plopping back down into the chair and burrowing her face into her hands.

Hugh widened his eyes. Talk about a mood swing. "You know," he began slowly," you never had a chance with him to begin with?"

Mei raised her head up to shot him a glare. "I know that now! The feels know that too! No need to rub it in my face!"

"Well. Now that you know that, you won't like him anymore, right?"

"Huh?" Mei cocked her head, blue eyes filling with confusion." I-I guess?"

"Then since you don't like him anymore, you have no reason to be sad."

"B-but I still like him…"

"As a fan with _respect_ for him. You like him, but its only respect," Hugh said. Mei stared at him with a bewildered expression as she tried to comprehend what he was saying. Quickly it changed into a look of realization. "Oh!" she said," I think I understand. Your mind games really did help me cheer up! I don't like _like_ him anymore but I like him as in respect for him. Makes sense! I guess."

Hugh nodded and leaned back into the chair, oddly feeling happy about this. Mei stayed still before jumping off the chair. "I'll check up on the Eevee!" she yelled before walking towards Nurse Joy who was watering a potted plant in the corner.

"Nurse Joy! Is the Eevee okay?" she asked.

The pink-haired nurse looked up at her and smiled. "Yes! Hold on just for a second." She hurried to the back of the room and quickly came back with the Eevee in her arms and handed it over to Mei. "Here you go! The machine said she was a girl, so take good care of her!"

Mei smiled as the Eevee let out a happy bark in her arms. "She's a girl? How cool! Oh but, she isn't mine so I should release her back into the wild."

Nurse Joy shook her head." You should keep her for your journey! She seems to like you, and Eevees evolve into very strong Pokemon!" The Eevee yipped loudly in agreement, and nudged Mei's arm with her head.

"Hah…Okay!" Mei brought out a Pokeball and gently hit the Eevee's head, watching her go inside the ball. The object wiggled around, before beeping in alert of the successful capture. "Yay!" Mei exclaimed. Nurse Joy smiled at her and returned back to the counter to her job. The brunette stared at the ball for a couple seconds before grinning and tossing out the ball again.

"_Eeeeve!"_ The Eevee landed on the ground, wagging her tail excitedly. Bending down, Mei said," Your new name will be…Aglet!"

"…_Ev_?!" Aglet gave her a baffled look.

"Hey! You're May, right?"

Mei looked up at the boy who had spoken. A familiar looking boy with lime-green hair and green hat and a bag loomed over her. "Curtis!" she exclaimed, getting up from the ground." Why are you here? And it's Mei by the way."

"Oh Mei! Mei…" He smiled." I'll remember your name for sure now! And I'm here because of my job. I need to get a Pokemon from my PC box. Which I did! My job can sure be tiring..." A glum look flickered over his face before changing into a happy one." Since I see you here, I'm guessing you beat Roxie?"

_So he's a traveling janitor…and that reminds me of Roxie's father…and that reminds me of him getting eaten. I shouldn't say stuff like that to everyone though_. Mei lowered her head and gave a solemn nod." I did…"

Curtis made note of her suddenly quiet voice. "Is anything wrong?" he asked softly.

Mei brought her head up and stared at his worried expression in horror. _This guy is good!_ "No there's nothing wrong!" she replied nervously, shaking her head and making her hair swing around. Curtis sputtered as hair smacked his face and laid his hand on her head, making her stop.

"You just have to shake your head once," he said, lips curling into a smile and took his hand off. Aglet barked at him and he looked down with a grin."Is this your Eevee?"

"Yeah! Her name is Aglet!"

"Aglet? Funny name!" Getting up, he reached into the bag her was holding and pulled out a palm-sized blue stone. He handed it over to Mei, who gasped at the coolness of the stone. Different shades of blue swirled around inside it, just like the surface of water.

"That's a water stone! If you use it on Eevee, it'll evolve into a Vaporeon, one of my favorite Pokemon!"

"Oh…" Mei whispered, gawking down at the stone. " Are you sure I can have this?"

Curtis made a shooing motion to the stone. "Take it! I'll have no use for it anyways. Besides, I'm sure my company won't mind about having one less."

"Traveling janitor companies are the best!" she exclaimed. Before Curtis could react, a boy with blue pineapple styled hair and glaring red eyes appeared out of nowhere. "Who are you?" he demanded.

Curtis blinked in surprise. "M-me? I'm Curtis!" He stared at the blue haired boy thoughtfully. He seemed familiar…" I've seen you before… Oh yes on the Xtransceiver! Was it Harry?"

Mei glanced at her friend, and to the water stone in her hand, and then back at Curtis. This was all making way to much sense. TOO much sense. "Hugh... are you jealous?"

* * *

**emo1neko& starpokemon123& FireDragonX23: Thank you!**

**ThePeacockFeather: It's okay! My iPad does that too D: **

**Sakai Kamichi: O.O Disturbingly makes a lot of sense.**

**Gemstone Gal:Espeons are are awesome :3**

**AngelKnightKaoru:YAY!**

**amberintheflame&arkee: QUILFISH!**

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**^Thanks guys for reviewing!~ AND OMG. THIS FIC IS ALMOST AT 100 REVIEWS. So please review! Suggestions, advice, anything!~**


	12. The Importance of Store Policy

** I feel like I'm going to get raged at for the next part ._.**

* * *

"WHAT?"

Surprised from Hugh's sudden outburst, Mei jumped a bit before looking at her friend worriedly. Maybe he was losing his hearing. "Are… you… jealous?" she drawled, pronouncing each word slowly so he would understand them.

"Jealous?" He backed away, scowling at her petulantly. "I'm not jealous!"

"It's okay, Hugh! I know why."

"I'M NOT JEALOUSSSS!" Hugh screamed, running out the door in a flash.

"You're jealous of me getting a water stone!" Mei finished, jabbing the stone at where Hugh used to be. At the sight of nobody, she lowered her arm down in confusion. Perhaps he was too embarrassed by the fact he was jealous of her getting a water stone and ran away. _Probably to the gym,_ Mei guessed. She would just have to meet him there.

"Does he always do that?"Curtis asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well…"There were many times when Hugh visited her when they were little and suddenly run out shouting. Not to mention he did that in present times as well. "Yeah. He's a very emotional boy," Mei continued, "very rash. I was going to give him the stone before he went WHOOOSH."

"You were going to give him the stone? The one I gave you?"

"Yup! It was pretty obvious he wanted one. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't give it to h…"Mei stopped talking to think to herself. Curtis was still technically the owner of the stone, wasn't he? "I would give it to him after I got your permission to do that, of course," she quickly added.

"If you want to, you can give it away. But I'm afraid I can't get you another stone since I have to back at my company's building. And I'm traveling around Unova for my job so I can't go back there for a while."

"That's okay…" Her voice trailed off as a sudden realization landed in her head. If Curtis was a traveling janitor, wouldn't he have touched some rather NASTY stuff? And maybe he found the water stone in the GARBAGE DUMP at his company's building. This pretty stone was actually full of filth! And it would be filthier if Curtis touched nasty stuff before giving it her!

"Do you wash your hands after work?" she asked nervously.

He grinned at her. "A person like me doesn't need to wash their hands!"

Not quite understanding what he'd meant by that, Mei stared at him in confusion.

His grin turning into a sheepish one, Curtis replied, " I-I mean, I don't have much time after work. "

Mei paled. "So you don't wash your hands?"

"Yes?" he answered quizzically, noticing the horrified look on her face.

"How GROSS!" she shrieked, stumbling backwards into the wall, narrowly missing the napping Eevee by her. She plopped down on to the ground, staring at the water stone in her hand. As much as she wanted to throw the contaminated thing away, she couldn't since she wanted to give it to Hugh, and also didn't want to hurt Curtis's feelings.

Curtis gawked at her. Never had he met a girl as strange as her. "I-Is something… wrong?" he asked, bending down to her height.

Mei flinched at his presence. She could practically FEEL the germs jumping off him. "No-no-nothing!"

"Th-"

"Nope!" She stuffed the water stone into her bag, picked up Aglet( waking her up in the process), and shakily stood up. "T-there's nothing wrong with me!"

"Well, alright."He got up, the weirded out expression still evident on his face. "Do you want ice cream to help you…calm down?"

Screw germs, he was offering her ice cream? "Yes please!" she exclaimed. "Is it that Casteliacone place?"

He blinked at her sudden behavior change."U-Uh… I think it's called that."

"YES!"She had always seen the advertisements on T.V, with a voice saying how delicious the ice cream was, and the camera panning over, showing every single detail. Recently, they stopped showing it as often due to low budget, but Mei had always wanted to try it. And now she could!

* * *

"_Vee…" _Aglet whined, wondering why her trainer and the boy were standing behind an agitated blonde. Why couldn't they have just let her sleep while they were standing around here doing nothing?

Mei gave her a pat on the head while looking at the building in front of her. The Casteliacone stand was much smaller than what she thought it would have looked like. It was basically just a pink counter, with three ice cream chest freezers behind it. Running the stand was an exasperated looking brunette wearing an orange maid dress. The blonde woman kept talking about how she wanted two cones for her and her co-worker at work, and the brunette kept refusing her.

Finally, the blonde stormed away in frustration, and they were next. The lady instantly brightened up at the sight of Curtis."A cute boy! What do you want sweetie?"

"Two Casteliacones please," he said with a smile, bringing out a wad of cash.

"Wait, I'll buy my own!"Mei exclaimed, realizing that if Curtis gave her one, it would be contaminated with the filth from his hands. Then she would probably get a HUGE stomachache from eating it. But there was a teeny problem with her buying a cone. None of the trainers she had battled had given her any cash.

_Wait. Actually I remember something my mom told me the day before I started my journey, _Mei thought. She had been zoning out while her mom was talking though, since she was too busy watching _Alvin and the Patrats _on the T.V. She distinctively remembered her mom rambling about a card…a trainer card! _Oh yeah! After a battle, the amount of money the losing trainer's wants deposited from their amount, gets sent to the winning trainer's card. _

Curtis, after observing the brunette for a moment, laughed. "Is this about me not washing my hands? I do maintain my hygiene. In fact, I have to. And I'll pay for both of ours. It's my treat before I go to work! " He turned back to the lady and nodded."Two cones, please."

The lady giggled. "Normally, I wouldn't let you get two, but since you're so cute, I'll give you how much you want!" She turned around to the ice cream freezers, humming as she scooped the substance inside. Seconds later, she turned back around, vanilla ice cream stacked in cones in each hand. Curtis grinned at her as they exchanged items, showing off his sparkling teeth.

Mei peered at him. She thought he looked like Christoph when they first met, but when he smiled like that, his face looked uncannily like his. "Has anyone ever told you look like Christoph?" she asked.

The boy blanched and quickly gave her the cone, almost tossing it. "I-I gotta go to work!" he yelled and hastily walked into the hoard of people walking by.

"Come again!" the lady sang after him.

"Being a traveling janitor must be a really busy job," Mei mused, sitting down in the bench beside the stand. Delicately holding the cone with the tips of her index finger and thumb, she squinted at it suspiciously. Regardless of what Curtis had said about his hands earlier, she couldn't help but feel like he was lying.

She sighed, glancing up at the buildings towering above her. She really wanted to try a cone…

"Ah!" she blurted, wearing a wide smile. Curtis had only touched the cone part, didn't he? That meant the ice cream was still good! So she could eat it without worrying about getting a stomachache!

Mei brought the Casteliacone up and, to her horror, found it gone. Only crumbs were left behind. "HYAAGGGH?!" she screamed, gawking at the atrocity in front of her. The only culprit could be…

"Aglet," she hissed, whipping her attention to the Eevee in her arms. Aglet looked at her innocently. Ice cream and crumbs were messily smeared over her face.

"NOOO! You know how much I wanted to try it? I would have given you some! But noooo! You just had to finish it in, like, zero point one seconds!"

"_Vee."_

"Don't 'vee' me! I-"

The cashier of the stand stuck her head out from around the corner. "You know…you can always buy a new one instead of getting angry at your pokemon in public. You're probably scaring away all the cute boys that are potential customers."

"A-Ah, I'm sorry." Mei felt her face get warm from embarrassment. Quickly, she returned Aglet back into her Pokeball and went to the front of the store again.

In a way, this was a good thing. She could buy a cone for Hugh! The two of them always used to chatter about how much they wanted to try one of the cones when they were little. "I would like two cones, please!"

The lady heaved an exasperated sigh. "Ah, nope. Buy either one or twelve."

Mei's eyes nearly popped out their sockets."Twelve?! What on earth will I do with twelve!?" She couldn't exactly buy one either…but twelve!?

Rolling her eyes, the cashier replied, "Eat them, of course."

"But I want two!"

"Can't let you do that. Store policy."

"Store policy? But you let Curtis buy two!"

The lady smiled."So his name is Curtis? Cute boyfriend you got there-"

Mei shook her head. "He's not my boyfriend. But why'd you let him get two? Aren't you breaking store policy then? "

Her smile grew wider. "He isn't your boyfriend? I knew a cute boy like that could do better than you. Like me! I hope he comes around more."

This lady was EXACTLY like those creepy aunt characters who flirted on younger guys in shows."Aren't you breaking store policy if you let him get two?" she repeated.

"Well, I let him get two because I like him! I can bend store policy for people I like."

Mei's jaw dropped. "Buwah? Why can't I get two then?"

"I just said I give the amount people want if I like them."

Mei took a moment to realize what she had meant. "T-That's…sexist!" she accused.

The lady raised an eyebrow."I listen to some girls too. But they have to be famous, of course. And there's also my boss… so one or a dozen?"

"I want two though…"

"Store policy doesn't let you do that. Either get one or twelve, or just leave."

"But-"_Ah wait. I can just buy one, and buy one again! There are loopholes for EVERYTHING! _"I'll tak-"

"I know what you're thinking," the lady interrupted." And it won't work since our supply runs out after you buy one."

"What is this? I don't even- why are you offering me twelve if the supplies run out after I buy just one?"

She shrugged. "Store policy."

"Eh? This is weirder then that kid with the magical shorts that can store up to twenty potions!"

"Okay…well are you going to buy some or not? You're wasting my time."

"Hmm… how much is one?" she asked, not wanting to buy it if it was too expensive. One was better than TWELVE of them. How would she even carry a dozen? Hugh would just have to come back here later.

"Geez, you're annoying. One is just a hundred and a dozen with a free ice box is twelve hundred. Either buy or leave."

Mei brightened up."I get a free ice box if I buy a dozen?"

"Well duh," she scoffed." Store policy requires that. How else would people carry twelve? I swear, some kids these days…"

"Why didn't you say that so before? Can I get a dozen then?" Mei said, pulling out her trainer card and handing it over to the lady. With a swipe with the card on the cash register, the woman lazily tossed back the card and went to the back. Mei made a disgruntled noise as she caught the card. Seconds later, the lady came turned around and slid the ice box off the counter, making it fall off. Luckily, Mei managed to bend down and catch it, just before the ice box crashed onto the ground.

She huffed in annoyance. Someone was a little clumsy. At least Mei had a dozen of the stuff she always wanted! Excited as can be, she pried open the ice box and gazed in wonder at the ice cream cones scattered messily around. One was even place upside down on the ice cream! Another was just a cone.

Fuming, she got up from the ground and showed the empty cone to the woman. As polite as she could sound, she asked, "Excuse me, can I have ice cream in this one?"

The lady sighed at the sight of her."Can't do that."

"Huh?"

"Store policy."

* * *

**IMMA SO SORRY. FORGIVE ME FOR UPDATING SO LATE. I had a bunch of school work( I swear teachers plan projects to be on the same days), drama, writer's block, and laziness to deal with. Writer's block and laziness. BLARGH...sorry if this chapter was even more icky than the others. **

**BTW congrats to starpokemon123 for being the 100th reviewer! YAY!~**

**BIG H100: Actually the celebrity version is Nancy, while the normal one is Yancy. The names for her are a bit confusing xD**

**And BTW, ZoraidaEdelweiss is translating this terrible fic into Spanish! Seriously, thank you for offering to do that! I feel so honored T.T**

**And I'll add back the review corners in next time, since I'm guessing no one would really know what I was talking about here(again, sorry for updating late.)**

**THANKS FOR READING! My birthday is coming up soon! So reviews as a present will be nice~? :D**


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